ATP World Tour Finals 2016: Stan Wawrinka's life of blood, sweat and fears

Tennis. Outsiders see it as the garden-party sport, a gentle ballet with rackets and balls. But for professionals who grind their way through the 46-week season, the reality can feel more like hand-to-hand combat, with the prizes often claimed by the last man standing.

Writing last month in the Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, Stan Wawrinka challenged this strawberries-and-cream perception. In a column about the US Open final, he opened with a description of his panic attack in the locker-room beforehand, which left him weeping and hoping that no one would notice his reddened eyes when he walked into the arena.

He then moved on to the aches that seized his legs in the opening set, to the point where he considered quitting on his chair. Finally, we learned of the mind-numbing exhaustion that gripped him during the latter stages — and may even have worked in his favour when it muffled “those...


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Wawrinka Wants 12 In A Row In St. Petersburg

The last time Stan Wawrinka played in St. Petersburg, he lost in a final. It was August 2004, and Wawrinka, then 19 years old and No. 159 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, fell to Jean-Rene Lisnard 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Since then, much has changed for Wawrinka. Namely, the Swiss No. 1 hardly loses in finals anymore. Wawrinka is 11-0 in his past 11 finals, including his US Open victory against Novak Djokovic earlier this month.

As the top seed at the St. Petersburg Open this week, the 31-year-old Wawrinka will try to make it 12 final victories in a row. “I have to make it to the final first,” he said during his pre-tournament press conference. “I hope to win more. So far I have achieved some impressive results.”

Wawrinka has had to beat some of the game's best to win titles during the past few years. He's beaten Djokovic twice, the other time at the 2015 Roland Garros, when Wawrinka earned his second Grand Slam tournament title. “Stanimal”, as Roger Federer nicknamed him in 2014, has also dispatched of Rafael Nadal, Federer, Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic, to name a few others. “Hopefully I can win more,” Wawrinka said.

In St. Petersburg, as Wawrinka has done in the past, he credited his coach, former ATP World Tour player Magnus Norman, for some of his success. Wawrinka also said his years of experience have helped. “Sometimes you get to your best tennis really a bit later, not when you're 20 years old,” he said. “That's my career... finally I could order all the pieces together and that's why I am now playing my best tennis.”

Wawrinka chose to return to St. Petersburg this week partly because it had been so long. The allure of something new made the destination tempting.

“Every year you play almost the same calendar, the same tournaments. Some tournaments I have played 10 years in a row,” Wawrinka said. “When you have the chance to be in a new tournament, in a new city, you will always see something different, something nice to see.”

Wawrinka will open his stay with a familiar opponent. The top seed plays Czech Lukas Rosol in the second round. Wawrinka leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 5-0, including three wins this season. Their closest contest was at Roland Garros earlier this season, when the 6'5” Rosol pushed Wawrinka to five sets.

“Really tough opponent,” Wawrinka said. “I expect a tough one, that's for sure.”

Kei Nishikori beats Stan Wawrinka to reach ATP Toronto Masters final

Japan's Kei Nishikori took advantage of a fade in form from Stan Wawrinka on Saturday as Asia's top player reached the final of the ATP Toronto Masters with a 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 win.

Swiss second seed Wawrinka's game went away during the semi-final tiebreaker, allowing Nishikori to move into his second Masters 1000 final of 2016. The third seed lost to Novak Djokovic at the final in Miami.

Nishikori, who is still coming back from a Wimbledon rib injury, will face Serbian top seed Djokovic or Frenchman Gael Monfils in the final, live on Sky Sports 3 from 9pm on Sunday night.

ATP Rogers Cup Toronto,Tomorrow, 03:00am

Novak Djokovic v Kei Nishikori

MATCH RESULT

Novak Djokovic

1/6

vs

Kei Nishikori

4/1

£10 Free Bet, No Deposit Needed

"It's just great to be into another Masters final, I'm looking forward to my opportunity," Nishikori said.

Nishikori was caught on the back foot in the early stages as Wawrinka secured an early break of serve, only to lose it in the ninth game of the opening set.

With the battle heading into a tie-breaker, the double Grand Slam champion Swiss took a 3-1 lead. But that slowly slipped away as his 37 unforced errors mounted.

The persistent Nishikori held his serve as his opponent missed on a pair of set points in the decider, with the Japanese star earning the set on his first opportunity.

Wawrinka's game dwindled rapidly and Nishikori closed it out on the first of three match points.

"I just tried to concentrate in the tiebreaker," Nishikori added. "I played a point at a time. 

Stan Wawrinka faded in the Toronto heat after the first-set tie-breaker

"I took confidence into the second set, tried to be aggressive on returns and stood farther back than usual."

Warwinka admitted he should have played better. He said: "But to make semi-finals in a Masters 1000 here on hard court where I never really played well on fast hard court - it's a good tournament.

"There are many things that I can be happy with. It was tough to play Kei today, there were tough condition, quite windy, fast. I had a lot of opportunity to take the first set. I didn't."

Stan Wawrinka

Stan Wawrinka heads to Wimbledon looking to improve on a record that has yet to see him pass the quarter-final at the All England Club.

The Swiss world No 5 is a two-time Grand Slam champion having claimed the French Open in in 2015 to go with the Australian Open in 2014.

However, at SW19 he has failed to match those heights, never going beyond the last eight - although quarter-final appearances in each of the last two years show that he might just be getting to grips with the grass courts.

Richard Gasquet and Roger Federer have ended his last two Wimbledon bids but as one of the top four seeds he can reasonably target a first semi-final.

Wawrinka had not enjoyed the best of seasons prior to the French Open but raised his level to reach the last four where he was beaten by Andy Murray, while his Australian Open ended at the hands of Milos Raonic in a five set fourth round defeat.

A first round exit to Fernando Verdasco at Queen's was not ideal preparation but he has added 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek to his team in the hope of a better showing on the lawns of London.

French Open 2016: Inconsistency could cost Stan Wawrinka title defense, says Tim Henman

Stan Wawrinka starts is set to defend his French Open title later this month against the top tennis players in the world, but there are concerns whether the Swiss No. 2 could pull off another stunning performance in Paris amid a somewhat disappointing run this season.

Wawrinka, who currently competes at the Geneva Open, has struggled to win tournaments since his victory at the Dubai Tennis Championships in February. But the more alarming matter for the world No. 4 is his winless campaign in the clay-season, marring his hopes to defend his title at Roland Garros.

However, there are still those who believe Wawrinka could display a high level of performance at the clay-season finale despite unpleasant results in Madrid and Rome. Retired British tennis player Tim Henman believes Wawrinka is still capable of bursting into the tennis scene, although the latter's "inconsistency" may cost him the chance to successfully record a second French Open title.

"The challenge for him is the consistency. Whereas Djokovic, for example, plays well nearly all the time, Wawrinka is much more inconsistent," Henman said, reports The Independent. "However, I'm sure that he'll get a lot of positive vibes from last year in coming back as the defending champion."

Wawrinka has gone through inconsistent displays in the tournaments leading up to the red clay courts of Stade Roland Garros. After a losing against Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters, Wawrinka continued his unfortunate campaign in the European clay-court season, losing to Australia's Nick Kyrgios in the second round of the Madrid Open prior to a Round of 16 defeat in the hands of Argentine Juan Monaco at the Italian capital.

But despite the setbacks in the last two months, Wawrinka is in excitement to take on the likes of Djokovic, Nadal and Andy Murray in the second Grand Slam event of the year. The two-time major winner understands the needed adjustments when playing in Paris and Wawrinka has all the intentions to follow his game plan.

"During a tournament, every day is different to another and I definitely shouldn't try to repeat what I did in game the day before, or two days before as conditions are never the same either. You have to adjust to your opponent," Wawrinka told Eurosport. "For me, it was just two incredible weeks by playing each match to very good level and then battling right to the end."

Wawrinka has failed to gain some momentum for Roland Garros from the lead-up tournaments, but if he could have a masterful victory in Geneva, it would be monumental for Wawrinka's bid to defend his French Open title.

Stan Wawrinka v Gilles Simon Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tennis live: Wawrinka faces familar foe Simon in third round

Former champion Stan Wawrinka aims for the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Thursday when he takes on 15th seed Gilles Simon.

With Novak Djokovic suffering a shock loss in his Monte Carlo opener against World No. 55 Jiri Vesely on Wednesday, the draw at the first clay court Masters 1000 event of the season is wide open and presents a fantastic opportunity for one of the Serbian’s rivals to pick up a big title. Wawrinka, a winner at Monte Carlo two years ago in 2014, is one of the top stars who now has an excellent chance of capturing just his second ATP Masters 1000 title of his career. But Wawrinka must not look too far ahead, as he first must attempt to reach his first Masters 1000 quarter-final of 2016 after another disappointing Indian Wells/Miami swing throughout the month of March.

Since consistently establishing himself as a top five player, Wawrinka has never progressed past the Round of 16 at Indian Wells or Miami, and that unfortunate trend continued last month. The World No. 4 bombed out in the third round in the Californian desert to the in-form David Goffin before falling in his opener at Key Biscayne against steady Russian Andrey Kuznetsov - a player he had defeated just a week earlier at Indian Wells. While there have been disappointing results throughout the opening quarter of the season - most notably a fourth round exit to Milos Raonic at the Australian Open - Wawrinka is still one of only a handful of players who has captured two ATP World Tour titles so far in 2016, with the Swiss triumphing at Chennai and Dubai.

Looking to get his clay court season off to a winning start and build some confidence heading into his Roland Garros title defence later on, Wawrinka brushed off the cobwebs to post a tight 7-6(2) 7-5 victory over dangerous German Philipp Kohlschreiber. It wasn’t a clinical performance by any means - the 31-year-old fell behind a break in the opening set and then squandered an early break lead in the second, but overall Wawrinka said he was happy with his first clay court outing of the year.

"It was a good first match, first match on clay," said Wawrinka. "It's never easy to find the rhythm and to play the perfect match. In general, I'm quite happy with the level already."

Next up for Wawrinka on Thursday is the ever-present Gilles Simon. Capable of derailing the best players in the world on his day, former World No. 6 Simon is a dangerous threat on clay and has won five of his 12 career titles on the surface. The 31-year-old is also a proven performer at Monte Carlo, reaching the semi-finals back in 2012 and making the Round of 16 in 2006, 2011 and 2015 - and now this season too. Simon has been in fine form this week in Monaco, advancing through to the third round without relinquishing a set in straight-forward victories over Viktor Troicki and Grigor Dimitrov.

Gilles Simon (Photo by VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)

While Simon has failed to advance past the quarter-finals at any event so far this year, the crafty Frenchman has nevertheless enjoyed a solid season. He was the only man to stretch Djokovic to five sets at the Australian Open in January and last month defeated Marin Cilic en route to the last eight in Miami (lost to Goffin). It was a disappointing February as Simon took part in the mini-European indoor swing, winning just one match over three tournaments at Montpellier, Rotterdam and Marseille, where he was defending champion. Overall it’s a season we’ve come to expect from Simon - randomly reminding us he has the game to trouble the top players but failing to produce a stand-out result at a significant tournament.

Wawrinka and Simon are familiar foes on tour, first meeting in a professional match way back in 2003 at a Futures event in France. While that match has no significance on Thursday’s encounter, Wawrinka has enjoyed two victories over Simon on clay - both at Roland Garros, including last year during the Swiss’s remarkable run to the title. If Wawrinka is playing well he has the power and weight of shot to hit Simon off the court. But if he is still adjusting to clay and delivers another somewhat shaky performance, Simon is more than capable of taking advantage. There’s also always the small chance that Simon will start blasting winners from all parts of the court with his deceptively powerful and flat groundstrokes. Wawrinka is favourite, but a Simon ‘upset’ is certainly not outside the realms of possibility here.

Stan Wawrinka safely through to second round in Dubai

Stan Wawrinka has ended his lengthy wait for a win at the Dubai Tennis Championships after defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round.

The Swiss second-seed lost his opening match on his two previous appearances in the tournament, but fought back from a set down to defeat Stakhovsky 5-7 6-3 7-5.

After moving 5-3 up in the first set, Wawrinka could not close it out on his serve and the frustrated world No 4 received a warning for racquet abuse as he fell 1-0 down in the match.

But Wawrinka regained his composure and control of the match in the second set and closed out victory over the Ukrainian, who also made him work for a win at last week's Marseille Open.

Nick Kyrgios needed three sets to overcome Martin Klizan

Nick Kyrgios went on to claim the Marseille trophy, his first ATP Tour title, and he extended his winning run after battling past Martin Klizan 3-6 6-3 6-2.

Klizan was a recent title winner in Rotterdam himself, but lost his grip on the match after taking a one set lead.

Earlier, third seed Tomas Berdych progressed with a comfortable 6-1 6-4 win over Joao Sousa of Portugal.

Tomas Berdych completed a straight sets victory

Berdych, who is a two-time finalist in Dubai, said: "A first match, playing outside after a while, it's a good test.

"Don't make it more complicated than needed."

Eighth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber is also through to the second round with a 6-1 7-5 over Marsel Ilhan, while Croatian Borna Coric beat Czech Jiri Vesely 6-4 6-4.

Watch live action at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Wednesday from 10am on Sky Sports 3.  Or watch the Championships from £6.99 without a contract, on NOW TV.