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Stan Wawrinka and Serena Williams hogged the limelight in Paris when they managed to win Coupe des Mousquetaires and Coupe Suzanne Lenglen respectively.

While Serena was expected to win her third title in the French Capital, Wawrinka’s triumph over overwhelming favourite World No.1 Novak Djokovic was more of a shock to the tennis fraternity. Wawrinka defied the odds to beat Djokovic in four sets at Roland Garros and claimed a second Grand Slam title to add to the Australian Open and Davis Cup which he won last year.

Both Williams and Wawrinka give credit to men who have stood beside them – French Patrick Mouratoglou and Swede Magnus Norman respectively. Both men have inspired their tutee to capture the title in Paris and rule supreme on the red dirt.

Mouratoglou – Masterstroke for Serena

Serena Williams with coach Patrick Mouratoglou

Incredible turnaround under the Frenchman

Three years ago, Serena Williams suffered her first ever loss in the opening round of a Grand Slam tournament at the French Open against Virginie Razzano of France. She was short on confidence and had not won a Slam since 2010 Wimbledon. This is when she decided to practice at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, run by French Patrick Mouratoglou and get back to the form that saw her win 13 majors.

She hired the French tennis coach of Greek descent and it turned out to be a stroke of genius as the American has gone on to win 7 Grand Slams (in the last 12 majors she has entered) taking her overall tally to 20. Since then, Mouratoglou has steered Williams to her fifth Wimbledon title, the Olympic Gold Medal, her fourth, fifth, and sixth US Open titles, her second and third French Open titles, three consecutive year-end championships titles, her sixth Australian Open title and lifted her back to World No. 1 in the WTA rankings.

She’s held the top spot in the rankings since Feb 18, 2013 – 121 weeks and counting (oldest woman in the Open-Era to hold the ranking). Now with 20 majors in her bag, Williams’ quest for Graf’s Open-Era record of 22 continues and at this ferocious pace, she could perhaps have that number come September at this year’s US Open.

Serena is mentally tougher now

Williams, who fought through flu to win her third French Open title and her third successive Grand Slam trophy, has arguably been the best player in the world for the past decade and half but her partnership with Mouratoglou has hustled her ascension towards the top of the all-time great pile.

Williams, who is known for her never-say-die attitude, always manages to dig herself out of trouble. She played 5 three setters in Paris and managed to stave off all her opponents. This attribute in Williams’ can be acknowledged to her coach who has galvanised her into being more consistent and mentally stronger. She’s won 67 career titles and almost won 40% of them in the last 3 seasons with Mouratoglou compiling a staggering 193-14 (93%) win-loss ratio in the process since hiring Mouratoglou. He seems to have stimulated Williams into all-time great and made her realise her true potential.

Will we see Serena repeat her 2002 season?

The win in Paris against Czech Lucie Safarova made her only the third person in history to win each major at least three times, joining Margaret Court and Steffi Graf. She’s the first player to win three straight majors since she did it herself during the Serena Slam. She is also the first player to win the Australian-French Open double since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.

All eyes will be on Wimbledon when Williams will try to hold all the 4 Slams at the same time again, a repeat of the 2002-03 “Serena Slam”. Should she win in London next month, she would go to New York chasing “No. 22” and try to become the fourth woman to win the Calendar Grand Slam. Williams’ partnership with Mouratoglou could make her the most successful tennis player of all-time with the all-time record of 24, held by Margaret Court, looks in serious jeopardy.

Norman – Wawrinka’s key to triumph

Wawrinka and Norman with the French Open Trophy

Before 2013, Stan Wawrinka was always recognised as Federer’s Davis Cup team-mate, gold medal winner with Federer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Swiss No.2. He was enormously talented but was clumsy at the same time. Some people said that he lacked the grace and poise that Federer had. Then he hired former World No.2 Magnus Norman of Sweden and rest as they say is history.

Magnus Norman was a former French Open finalist losing to Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten in the 2000 finals. He was more known for his exploits with Robin Soderling as a coach, who managed to beat Rafael Nadal in the famous 4R encounter in Roland Garros (Rafa’s 1st defeat in Roland Garros). Soderling managed to reach back-to-back French Open Finals in 2009 and 2010 (defeated Federer in the QF ending his consecutive SF streak at 23) under Norman.

Soderling also reached a career-high World No.4 ranking before suffering injuries and glandular fever that have troubled his career since. Norman had also teamed up with fellow former Swedish tennis players Mikael Tillström and Nicklas Kulti to run the Good to Great Tennis Academy, which has had among its students Wawrinka and rising Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov.

Norman instilled belief in Wawrinka

In 2013, Wawrinka began working with new coach Magnus Norman. The Swede has made Stan mentally stronger apart from being a beast already and guided him to his 1st major SF at the US Open 2013 after toiling through 34 majors (main draw) without making the last 4. At the 2013 Australian Open, he made it to the fourth round before losing a gruelling five-set thriller against Novak Djokovic which lasted just over five hours.

This match perhaps started the rise of Stan towards major glory. This partnership has been recognized with improvement in Wawrinka’s performance in significant matches and was evident in his victories over Andy Murray at the 2013 US Open, and Djokovic at the 2014 Australian Open (both were defending champions), as well as his improved consistency in big matches.

Wawrinka’s mental game has also been seen to improve over time, culminating in his win over No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal at the 2014 Australian Open Final in which Wawrinka survived a fight back from Nadal to clinch the title. He also survived a fight back from No. 1 seed Djokovic at the 2015 French Open final last Sunday, being down one break of serve in the fourth set, before breaking Djokovic’s service twice to clinch the title.

Apart from winning 2 majors, his first Masters title & Davis Cup with Switzerland, Wawrinka has managed to exorcise his demons against the Big 3. He ended momentous losing streaks against Djokovic (2014 AO; 14 match losing streak) and Nadal (2014 AO; 12 match losing streak) beating the Spaniard for the first time in 13 matches (having never won a set against him in 12 attempts).

He managed to also defeat good friend Federer in the finals of the Monte Carlo Masters ending his 11 match losing streak against the Swiss legend. Norman has gone on to change Wawrinka’s attitude towards tennis and this aided him in reaching a career high ranking of No.3 in the world.

Wawrinka is here to stay

Wawrinka has revealed that a pep talk from Norman helped him to get hold of the pre-match jitters and inspired him to glory in the French Open final against Djokovic. The Swede has had a phenomenal record with Stan which persuaded another Swedish tennis great Mats Wilander to regard him as the “Best Coach in the World”. Norman has transformed his game and perhaps got him out of Federer’s shadow for the best part of his professional career.

Stan has still been underperforming in smaller events on a regular basis and is not consistent as the “Big 4”. Amid personal disturbances and broken marriage, Wawrinka struggled to find form before arriving in Paris. But with Norman around, Stan’s game went notches up given the turmoil of his life and form.

With a clean & straightforward game along with a thinker like Norman, Wawrinka could possibly be part of a “Big 5” and dominate the game for a longer period. Norman’s main focus now will be to ensure Stan is more consistent at the Masters level and avoid any possibly dip in form. Wawrinka’s backhand is a weapon of mass destruction and on his given day, he could demolish top players by replicating the lights-out game he produced against Djokovic on Sunday.

Wawrinka’s victory was more fruitful for Norman as he had come close to lifting the title in Paris on 3 separate occasions (2000 as a player and 2009/2010 as a coach with Soderling).

Come next month, we could perhaps see another historic chapter of the Norman-Wawrinka affiliation on the grass-courts of Wimbledon.

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Stan Wawrinka with the 2015 French Open trophy

Stan Wawrinka shocked the tennis world yesterday as he denied Novak Djokovic a chance for completing his Career Slam, thwarting the Serb 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the finals of the French Open 2015. In arguably one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam history, the Swiss produced some of the most breathtaking and aggressive tennis ever seen to subdue the Serbinator and take home La Coupe des Mousquetaires.

But was he expected to win? On paper it was perhaps a big NO but numbers, analogy and history tilted the match towards “STANIMAL”.

The below facts shows why the end result in sport can actually be a complete numbers’ game:

1 & 2 – Wawrinka mirrored his 2014 Australian Open victory in Paris as he defeated No. 2 seed Roger Federer in the QF before stunning top seed Novak Djokovic in the finals. In Melbourne, he had beaten the No. 2 seed Djokovic in the QF before upsetting top seed Nadal in the finals. (Sergi Bruguera was the last man to beat both the top two seeds enroute to a major; at the 1993 French Open he defeated No. 1 Pete Sampras in QF and No. 2 Jim Courier in the finals).

3 – Nadal lost his third Australian Open final to Wawrinka. Djokovic lost his third French Open final to the Swiss. So caution to all – do not play Wawrinka in your third final at the same Major! Murray could be the next victim (he’s played two finals each at Wimbledon and the US Open).

4 & 5 – Wawrinka clinched both the finals in four sets and rose five positions in the ATP rankings after each match.

8 – Wawrinka would love to be seeded 8th at the Majors. He was seeded 8th at the 2014 Australian Open which was his first Grand Slam Victory. He was again seeded 8th at this year’s French Open and went on to pick up his second Major.

11 – Djokovic and Wawrinka were both aiming to win their first RG title this year, in their 11th appearance. Andres Gomez (1990), Andre Agassi (1999) and Federer (2009) all clinched their first Roland Garros title on their 11th attempt. Since all numbers here favour Stan, this stat also belongs to him.

28 – Wawrinka has now ended Djokovic’s two separate 28-match winning streaks. He had ended Djokovic’s 28-match win streak in the QF at the 2014 Australian Open and repeated the same yesterday as he stopped the Serb’s unbeaten run at 28 matches.

43 – Djokovic was on a 43-match win streak in major events coming into the French Open finals (only Grand Slams, Masters and World Tour Finals). In 2010-11, Djokovic was also on a 43-match unbeaten run (in all matches) before he lost to another Swiss – Roger Federer – in the 2011 Roland Garros semifinals.

Too many streaks spoil the plot – Prior to the 2015 French Open final, Novak was on a 16-match win streak on clay along with his 28-match unbeaten run overall and 43 match unbeaten streak in major events. At the 2014 Australian Open, Wawrinka defeated the Serb in the QF, bringing Djokovic’s 25-match winning streak at the Australian Open, 28-match winning streak overall and streak of 14 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals to an end.

What happens when Rafa Nadal loses in Paris? Answer – Swiss Rule (Confoederatio Helvetica): Nadal has lost only two matches in Paris in his entire career (70-2 overall; 9 titles in 11 attempts). He lost to Swede Robin Soderling in 2009 which resulted in Swiss Roger Federer completing his Career Grand Slam. It was a repeat in 2015 as Swiss native Wawrinka took advantage of Nadal’s loss in the QF to Djokovic, ensuring Swiss rule again in Paris. What this also implies is that a victory over Nadal certainly does not guarantee you the title in Paris.

Australian Open – French Open Double: In my last month article I had discussed the “Australian Open – French Open double: A near impossible feat to achieve”. This continues to be the most difficult double to attain in men’s tennis, as only three men have done it in the Open Era (Rod Laver in 1969, Mats Wilander in 1988 and Jim Courier in 1992). With all odds stacked against him, Djokovic’s task of winning the double even got tougher.

Career Grand Slam in jeopardy – Djokovic was denied a chance to complete his Career Grand Slam by Wawrinka. Interestingly, the Swiss had also denied Nadal the chance to complete the Open Era’s first Double Career Slam (multiple victories at all Slams) at the 2014 Australian Open.

Out of the six players who have played in excess of 16 Grand Slam finals, only Lendl and Nadal have won their 16th Major final (Federer, Sampras, Borg and now Djokovic all lost their 16th title match).

Djokovic was also playing in a No-Nadal final which should have favoured the Serb as Nadal had denied Federer the Career Grand Slam four times (2005-2008) and also stopped the Serb thrice (2012-2014). The French Open is the best place to tick off the Career Slam with both Agassi (1999) and Federer (2009) completing their full set here in Paris, but the Serb ran out of luck. His wait continues….

Stats meter

– Wawrinka will return to the Top 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday after joining Federer (2009) as the only Swiss champions at the claycourt Grand Slam. The Lausanne native added to the Australian Open crown he won in January 2014 (d. Nadal), making him just the sixth active player to win multiple Major titles.

– The 30-year-old Wawrinka, who won the boys’ singles title in Paris in 2003 (d. Baker), is the first former junior champion to lift the men’s singles trophy since Mats Wilander in 1988. Only six of the 68 different Roland Garros boys’ champions have gone on to win the men’s singles title.

– At 30 years and 71 days, he is the third oldest first-time Roland Garros champion in the Open Era. He became the oldest champion since Andrés Gómez of Ecuador who won the title in 1990. He also became the lowest seed to win in Paris since the unseeded Gaston Gaudio (44 ranked) of Argentina beat compatriot and third seed Guillermo Coria in the 2004 French Open final.

– Having fallen to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the first round last year, Wawrinka is the first player to return the following year and lift the trophy at the same Grand Slam championship since Federer won at 2003 Wimbledon. One year earlier, the Swiss had fallen in his opener to Mario Ancic at the All England Club. Wawrinka is also the first man to win Roland Garros after losing in the 1R in the previous year.

– Following his victory over Federer in the QF, Wawrinka became the third active player (after Tsonga and Berdych) outside of the big four (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray) to have beaten each member of the ‘Big Four’ in major tournaments.

– Incidentally Gustavo Kuerten, who had beaten Stan’s coach Swede Magnus Norman in the 2000 French Open final, presented the winner’s trophy to the Swiss.

– Djokovic’s coach Boris Becker also failed to win Roland Garros (best result SF in 1987, 89, 91).

Seven-time Gerry Weber Open champion Roger Federer found his way into final in Halle, where he will now meet Andreas Seppi for the 13th time on the professional tour. Federer holds a 11-1 Head to Head record against Seppi and will look to add to that en route to his eighth title in Halle.

Up against Ivo Karlovic in the semi-final round, Roger Federer managed to beat the towering Croat in 88 minutes to secure his spot in the final of the tournament. It was a tight match, as Federer was unable to take command of the match in the opening set until the tiebreak, which was when he edged it out. The second set was much of the same, which resulted in a 7-6(3), 7-6(4) scoreline.

“It comes down to a shot here or there,” said Federer. “We are both mentally prepared. We’ve played so many breakers against one another and I think he was better in the set in the first set, I was better in the breaker. I guess I deserved it because I stayed calm. And in the second set probably I was better throughout the set and he was maybe a bit better in the breaker. Maybe I got a little bit lucky in the breaker.

“So, it was a tough match. I knew that going in. I was struggling to read his serve in the first set, but handled it better in the second set. It was tough. It’s just a bit of a grind and physically it’s like easy, mentally rough.”

The Swiss No. 1 will come up against Andreas Seppi in the Halle final. The Italian reached that stage of the tournament when Kei Nishikori retired down 1-4 in the opening set of their semi-final match with a calf injury.

“I felt it yesterday during the match and I fought through yesterday, but today [there] was a little pain this morning and I tried in the match, but I couldn’t really move,” said Nishikori. “It just came suddenly yesterday. So there is nothing I could do and it’s very unfortunate.”

This marks the 13th time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour and the third time this season. Seppi was unable to tarnish Federer’s record against him during Federer’s worst season on the tour but stunned crowds in Melbourne when he ousted the Grand Slam great at this year’s Australian Open for his first ever win against the Swiss. However, he still have to overcome a 11-1 h2h record against Federer, which does not bode well for his chances on Sunday.
 

Novak Djokovic poses with the 2015 Australian Open title

Novak Djokovic entered the French Open trying to lift his first Coupe des Mousquetaires at the Stade Roland Garros. He was attempting to become only the eighth man in history to have won all the 4 Grand Slam events (Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal have already achieved this). He also tried to become the first man since Jim Courier way back in 1992 to win both the Australian Open and the French Open titles in the same calendar year.

The Aussie-French double has historically been the least attained double with only 3 players able to achieve this in the Open-Era (Rod Laver in 1969, Mats Wilander in 1988 & Jim Courier in 1992). The below plot illustrates the number of double slams attained post the Open Era.

The Most successful double achieved has been the Wimbledon-US Open double which has been done 14 times. Federer has done this 4 times with Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras completing this double twice. The US Open-Aus Open double has been achieved 9 times with Pete Sampras, Agassi and Federer doing this twice. The Channel Slam (French-Wimbledon double) often regarded as the toughest double to achieve has been done 7 times with Swede Bjorn Borg completing this 3 times in a row (1978, 1979 & 1980) and Nadal repeating the feat twice (2008 & 2010). The Aussie-French double has been achieved only thrice.

Grand Slam Pairs – Post Open Era

Why has the Aus Open – French Open double been achieved only 3 times in the Open Era?

1) Big Players Skipping the Australian Open in the 70s & 80s 

Beginning in 1969, when the first Australian Open was held on the Milton Courts at Brisbane, the tournament was open to all players, including professionals who were not allowed to play the traditional circuit. Nevertheless, except for the 1969 and 1971 tournaments, many of the best players missed this championship until 1982, because of the remoteness, the inconvenient dates (around Christmas and New Year’s Day), and the low prize money.

Bjorn Borg played in the Australian Open only once

In 1970,George MacCall’s National Tennis League, which employed Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Andrés Gimeno, Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson, and Fred Stolle, prevented its players from entering the tournament because the guarantees were insufficient, and the tournament was ultimately won by Arthur Ashe. 6-time French Open Champion Bjorn Borg played in the Australian Open only once in 1974 at the age of 17.

Before the Melbourne Park stadium era, tournament dates fluctuated as well, in particular in the early years because of the climate of each site or exceptional events. For example, the 1919 tournament was held in January 1920 (the 1920 tournament was played in March) and the 1923 tournament in Brisbane took place in August when the weather was not too hot and wet.

Post that,1977 tournament was held in December 1976 – January 1977, the organisers chose to move the next tournament forward a few days, then a second 1977 tournament was played (ended on 31 December), but this failed to attract best players. From 1982 to 1985, the tournament was played in mid-December. Then it was decided to move the next tournament to mid-January (January 1987), which meant there was no tournament in 1986.

Since 1987, the Australian Open date has not changed. However, some top players, including Federer and Nadal, have in the past, felt that the tournament is held soon after Christmas and New Year holidays, thus preventing players from reaching their best form, and expressed a desire to shift it to February. Such a change, however, would move the tournament outside the summer school holiday period, potentially impacting attendance figures.

2) Surface Variation

The Australian Open was played on faster Courts till 2007 (1905-1987 Grass & 1988-2007 Rebound Ace) before it was decided to use Plexi-Cushion from 2008. Players have traditionally found it difficult to adjust to the surface in Melbourne.

Djokovic achieved the three peat in 2013 (champion in 2011, 2012, 2013) but no other player has been able to win it more than 2 times in a row in the Open Era. The other Grand Slams have seen players winning 5 consecutive times (Nadal at French Open, Borg/Federer at Wimbledon & Federer at US Open). Also since this is the first Grand Slam of the year, players are rusty and short on match practice and thus usually tend to struggle.

3) Question of Momentum

There is a gap of almost four months between the Australian Open and the French Open, whereas the other 3 Slams are spaced within 4 months of each other. Players do lose momentum after winning in Australia since such a big gap could often lead players losing thrust.

Also after the Australian open, players tend to go to US to play on the outdoor hard courts in Indian Wells and Miami before coming back to Europe to participate on the clay courts of Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome. These events are physically demanding and takes a huge toll on the players. Thus by the time, the big players are ready to compete at the French Open, they are perhaps stressed failing to recover in time.

The plot above exemplifies the performance of the Australian Open Champions in the succeeding French Open. The Australian Open Champion has lost in the French Open finals 6 times in the Open Era (1978-Vilas, 1983-Wilander, 1993-Courier, 2006 & 2007-Federer, 2012-Djokovic).

In the current era of tennis, where almost all tennis records have been broken and reset by the versatile trio of Roger, Rafa & Novak, the Australian – French double has yet to be achieved. The Big 3 account for almost 1/3 of the Grand Slam doubles achieved in the Open Era. Roger and Novak have entered the French Open 4 times as the Australian  Open champion but have failed to lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires (Novak enters this FO as the AO champion for the 5th time).

Ironically, Rafa has been the best clay court player in history with 9 titles in Paris; but failed to win the French Open in 2009 when he entered as the Australian Open Champion (lost to Robin Soderling in 4 sets). Historically, faster court champions have failed to perform well at the French Open but with the likes of all court players like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray you would have expected the Australian – French double to be achieved sometime in this era.

Despite Djokovic not being able to make it this time around as he was stopped by an inspired Stan Wawrinka, many fancy the Serbian superstar to achieve this feat in the next couple of years or so.

Simona Halep is through to the quarter finals of the AEGON Classic after a 6-1 6-3 victory, needing just 52 minutes to defeat the Czech qualifier Klara Koukalova.

Koukalova came into this match on a high after a comprehensive thrashing of Carolina Garcia in the previous round but World No.3 Halep clearly provided a much sterner test from the outset, breaking serve on every occasion in the first set which lasted a paltry 19 minutes.

It felt like the Romanian was happy not to force the issue after an early second set break with Koukalova reeling off three straight holds in the middle part of the set, the first of which saw her save three break points to get on the board.

A final break to close out the match would complete a successful afternoons work for Halep, who now extends her run to 12-0 when she is the first seed at the tournament. Yesterday’s withdrawal of Victoria Azarenka places her amongst the favourites to take the title along with Sabine Lisicki and fourth seed Angelique Kerber.

Third seed Carla Suarez Navarro had a much easier time on Ann Jones Centre Court today with a straight sets win over two-time slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-4. The Spaniard came through a tough three setter (her 22nd of the year) yesterday in defeating Timea Babos, needing to come from a break down in the final set against the Hungarian qualifier.

After taking the first with a single break, the second set was much easier for her. She rushed into a 4-1 lead, taking four straight games after Kuznetsova. The third seed had a bit of trouble closing out the match, failing to convert multiple match points but did so with her fourth to move into the semi finals.

Suarez Navarro is set to face the winner of Zarina Diyas and Karolina Pliskova in the next round while Halep will face the impressive Kristina Mladenovic, who continued her good run with a victory over last year’s losing finalist Barbara Zahlavova Strycova in straight sets.