US Open | Stan 'the man' beats Djokovic to lift his first US Open title

Novak Djokovic is no stranger to the US Open. Sunday was an attempt to win his third title at Arthur Ashe stadium, and his 13th major overall. His counterpart Stanislas Wawrinka was appearing in the US open finals for the very first time. He had spent almost twice as long on the court compared to Novak and was on the verge of crashing out against Dan Evans in the third round where he had to save a match point.

Uncharacteristically, Novak failed to close out the first set when leading 5-4, and we ended up in a tie-break which was utterly dominated by the Serb (7-1), and the first set was wrapped up at 7-6. There was much abuzz about the fact that Djokovic was 51-0 at the US Open when having won the first set (53-2 in the finals). A quite staggering fact that was about to be shattered into pieces by Stan.

After having saved the first with a delicate drop shot, Novak succumbed to yet another unforced error in the second, much to the appreciation of the New York crowd. Tied at 1 set apiece, Stan’s trademark finger to the temple, signifying his mental strength to dig deep when it mattered, was on display.

The third set began on a sorry note for Djokovic. Wawrinka’s backhand winners were finding the lines, and the Serb could do little about them. Wawrinka broke early to race into a 3-0 lead. But if anything, it was typical of this topsy-turvy match that Djokovic got the break back, and we were tied up at 5 games all.

The momentum was with Stan now. He had been the better player over the course of the 3 sets, and Djokovic was struggling with an apparent foot injury (later affirmed as a blister). The 4th set followed suit, and Wawrinka was 3-1 up again with an early break. Then came a delay as the Serb called for the trainer, and Stan was not pleased about having to wait at such a crunch time. What followed was a long and tedious service game by Stan that he barely managed to hold but did just enough in the end to sail to a 4-1 lead. The set remained on course, and Wawrinka served out the 4th set 6-3 to complete a quarter of a career slam.

For someone who’s been known as ‘the other Swiss player’ for almost a decade of his career, it’s not too bad an achievement. 2 of his 3 Grand Slam titles have come post the age 30 and if late bloomer was ever a term, Stan Wawrinka does full justice to it. Stan’s story is even more spectacular when you see that it took him until he was 28, and a total of 35 major appearances, to reach his first semi-final and now he stands tied with Andy Murray with his career grand slam tally. The Australian Open in 2014, followed up by the Roland Garros in 2015 and now the US Open in 2016. If he now manages to win the Wimbledon crown in 2017, it will be quite the fairytale for the Swiss maestro.