Stan Wawrinka was already having a season to be pleased with before the his run to the final at the Umag Open. The 38-year-old has won his highest number of matches since 2019, has not lost in the opening round in any of the Masters 1000 events he has played, and reached the third round of Wimbledon for the first time since 2015. Although the Swiss legend will be hurting after narrowly losing the final in Umag to Alexei Popyrin, reaching his first final since 2019 is still a great achievement at 38 years old, and after the long layoff with a foot injury he had until last year. Wawrinka has not radically changed the game that brought him so much success, but he has made some adjustments. What were they, exactly?
How Stan Wawrinka Reinvented Himself Again
1. Being Even More Aggressive With his Forehand
Wawrinka is famed for how hard he can strike the ball off both wings. His one-handed backhand is one of the most legendary in tennis history. In fact, there is a strong argument that in his prime ,Wawrinka had the best single-handed backhand tennis has seen. The slight problem for the Swiss now is that consistently hitting one-handed backhand winners requires a specific set-up and stability. It is much harder to hit a single-handed backhand when unbalanced compared to a two-handed backhand. Of course Wawrinka still does hit some beautiful backhand winners. But since he is now slightly slower around the court at the age of 38, it is more difficult to get into a perfectly balanced position as often to hit winners off that wing.
That is why the 2014 Davis Cup winner has become even more bold with his forehand. Wawrinka has always had one of the most powerful forehands in the game, but his slower movement slightly inhibiting his backhand means he has started letting rip even more with his forehand. It is easier for him to hit winners even if a little unbalanced on that wing. Despite understandably not being as fast as he used to be, Wawrinka is now more alert to opportunities to run round his backhand to hit a forehand than he was in the past. It has been a small but wise adaptation.
2. An Increased Willingness to Come Forward
To be clear, Wawrinka has always been capable at the net and used his volleys when he needed too, but it was never a focal part of his game. The clear focus was on waiting for the right opportunities to outmuscle his opponents from the back of the court. The 16-time ATP champion still does that for long spells of matches, but he also understands the need to finish points earlier at this stage of his career. Hence it is now more common to see Wawrinka rush to the net after hitting a good groundstroke. Occasionally he also serves and volleys, which is a tactic the 2015 French Open winner almost never used in the past. I would argue that Wawrinka’s volleying is the one element of his game that has seen improvement since his prime. That is testament to an excellent professional adapting his game to prolong his career.
3. Throwing in More Drop Shots
The drop shot is another stroke that Wawrinka has always had in his repertoire, but used mostly sparingly in the past due to his existing game being of such a high quality. It is another skill the former US Open champion has used to shorten points and avoid persistent long rallies. His quarterfinal match in Umag against Roberto Carballes Baena was a pertinent example. Wawrinka repeatedly pushed the Spaniard far behind the baseline, but rather than trying to just hit through his opponent point after point, the drop shot was consistently used to win points. It also made Carballes Baena unsure of what type of shot Wawrinka would hit next, affecting his own performance negatively.
This shows once more how smart the 30-time ATP finalist has been. Many players make the error of believing they can be rigid and play in exactly the same manner even as they age. Wawrinka has not radically changed. The big serving and heavy groundstrokes are still there as they always have been. But there has been an appreciation that he cannot react and move as quickly as he once did, and adding more variety such as volleying and drop shots to shorten points is a way to compensate for some of that loss.
4. Rediscovering a Ruthless Edge
When Wawrinka returned to the tour last year, one thing he struggled with repeatedly was having the killer instinct needed to finish off a match that he once had. This included losing matches despite having holding match points. Wawrinka lost from a set and two match points up in Antwerp against a fellow veteran with a legendary one-handed backhand, Richard Gasquet. He then squandered two more match points against Holger Rune just weeks later at the Paris Masters. His 1-6 6-2 6-3 loss at the Astana Open against Adrian Mannarino is a further example of a tame loss from a position of dominance.
It is inevitable Wawrinka will lose matches, but this season it is usually as a result of his opponent being too good as Popyrin’s big hitting was in the Umag final. He is doing a better job of closing out matches that are there for him to win. The three points I mentioned previously were new technical adjustments, but this point is about rediscovering some of the mentality he had when he was near his best. Wawrinka has been particularly good in opening round matches this season, showing that he has the ruthlessness again to win matches that he is expected too with minimal fuss. Doing this throughout the season will have helped build the momentum and belief that led to his phenomenal week in Umag.
Conclusion
Overall it has been an amazing effort from Stan Wawrinka to return to the level he has at the age of 38. The impressiveness of his comeback seemed to fall a little under the radar during the steady results he had before Umag. Hopefully now the tennis world fully appreciates what this legend of tennis is achieving, and realizes we should appreciate Wawrinka’s game while we still have a chance to watch it.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
