Yesterday’s breaking news was the announcement of Stan Wawrinka regarding his withdrawals from Montreal and Cincinnati
“After much backwards and forwards and consultations with my doctors and my team unfortunately I have decided to skip Canada and Cincinnati to be on the safe side even though I’ve been battling hard to make these Events,” said Wawrinka in a Facebook post.
The Roland Garros runner-up also added: “I’m hugely disappointed for my fans and myself that I have to make this decision, but I need to be 100 per cent confident before I resume competition till the injury that plagued me in Wimbeldon has been resolved.
“My team and I are doing everything possible to make this a speedy recovery,” he concluded.
Stan Wawrinka will therefore skip the two Masters 1000 before the last Grand Slam of the year, the US Open, and is also doubtful to play at Flashing Meadows. His knee injury suffered in Wimbledon seems to be more serious than expected as the Swiss has been forced to take this hard decision.
This was not the first time that the world #4 had this problem, since he’s been suffering from it since the last part of last year. It seemed over after his amazing Roland Garros run, where he reached his fourth career Slam final, but it wasn’t. He tried to play on it in Wimbledon but this was a wrong choice as now the injury looks worse.
He will now lose the 360 points from the Montreal semifinals and 90 from Cincinnati’s third round last year. Most of these points already came off last week (because last year’s schedule was changed up due to the Olympics), so ranking won’t be a relevant problem for the Swiss, but it would become one if he had to withdraw from the US Open too. As a matter of fact, last year Wawrinka picked up his third career Grand Slam title in New York and not playing there would be worse for him, as it would almost mean being out of the top 10.
Why tennis needs Stan Wawrinka
It’s known Stan Wawrinka is an amazing player, with the most beautiful and powerful one handed backhand on tour. When he plays in top shape, it’s a pleasure to watch. His talent is not even questionable.
He has been very unlucky to play during the “Big Four” era, but he is also one of the very few players who could compete clean with them. Wawrinka has constantly been in top 10 since he reached it for the second time in 2013 (he did it in 2008 too but left after a few weeks). He also won Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open at his first attempt, matching world #1 Andy Murray’s number of Majors.
That’s why “Stan the Man” can be considered the “Fifth” big, and in a period in which Murray and Djokovic are struggling a lot and Federer and Nadal try to play less to stay healthy, he can play his cards and look for other great achievements, such as Career Grand Slam for example, as the only Slam missing is Wimbledon–where he never went further than the quarter finals, which he reached two years in a row in 2014 and 2015.
