Stan Wawrinka progressed into the quarter finals of the US Open at Flushing Meadows today with a four set win over unseeded Donald Young. Looking at past slam performances, the Swiss players results have either been great or terrible. Although starting to show more consistency now, there are periods when Wawrinka has not played to the best of his ability.
Examples of this can be found simply looking into his Grand Slam record. Taking a look at the Australian Open it is easy to see that for most periods entered he performed poorly at this slam. Up until he achieved his maiden slam here in 2014, the Swiss players best result was in 2011 where he reached the quarter final. His other results at this slam ranged from reaching the second round to reaching the fourth round. 2015 saw him reach the semi final of the first slam of the year.
The French Open at Roland Garros saw his best result before winning in 2015 was a quarter final berth in 2013. The following year the Swiss went out in the very first round. Prior to 2013 the best result at the second slam of the tennis year was reaching round four, other results have varied from first round exits, round two exits and round three exits.
The Championships at Wimbledon, have so far historically been where Wawrinka has performed the worst. The best result has been twice in the quarter finals, in 2014 & 2015. Prior to this the Swiss has reached the fourth round twice, the second and third rounds once. The round that the Swiss player has most commonly departed from the grass court slam has been the first round.
At Flushing Meadows and the US Open to date the best result Wawrinka has managed was the semi final in 2013, prior to this the best result he managed was the quarter final twice (2010, 2014). The worst result for Wawrinka here was back in in 2009 where he departed in the first round, he has lost in the second round once, the third round twice and the remaining years he lost in round four.
Why do Wawrinka’s results vary so much at the slams? – this is very hard to say, however certainly recently at most he appears to be playing more consistently. Could this be down to his coach, or the fact that once he obtained his maiden slam, the Swiss gained more confidence. This would not explain his Wimbledon results though. Grass does not seem to be a good surface for Wawrinka, as clearly shown in his results, which up until the last two years have been poor. What could explain his inconsistency at the slams, as his runs in the slams are either a feast of good ones or a famine where by the Swiss will lose much earlier than his ranking and seeding dictates. Previously it could certainly have been down to his mental attitude, however this certainly seems to have improved of late. Magnus Norman has worked well on this aspect with Wawrinka and the results certainly appear to be improving. This bodes well for the Swiss player and his future performances in Grand Slams
