Is This The Year For 'Stanimal'?

How could anyone ever suggest Stan Wawrinka is a conformist when he dared to wear patterned ‘country club’ shorts, which clashed with the rest of his outfit, for one Grand Slam final, and then opted for a uniform shade of fuscia, right down to his watch strap, for another?

Wawrinka is most certainly not as other men or, more precisely, is not of the same sort of character as the other four players to have dominated tennis during what is widely regarded to have been a golden era for the ATP World Tour. Of course, no one seriously believes that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray all have the same, or even strikingly similar, characters (this isn’t a sport populated by clones). However, Wawrinka is quite different to the rest of the tennis elite – for one thing, he didn’t even reach his peak until he was nearing his 30s.

Humble is not a word you would imagine using to describe somebody whose career has brought him some of the biggest prizes in sport, including an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo and three Grand Slams, the third of which came at this year’s US Open. Or someone who has been as high as No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and, who, in his single-handed backhand, has one of the most devastating shots in the modern game. But it’s an adjective that surely applies to this 31-year-old Swiss with a shy and unassuming nature, who often doesn’t seem too bothered by the trappings of success and fame.

Given a couple of weeks off from the jet-set lifestyle of competing on the ATP World Tour, he likes nothing better than to head home to rural Switzerland and the family farm in St. Barthélemy, a hamlet just a quarter of an hour’s drive from Lausanne. Wawrinka doesn’t actually pick up tools and work the land at every opportunity, but the farmer’s son still knows how to drive a tractor. And because the farm is designed as a centre for people with special needs, it set him up with an understanding of those less fortunate than himself. A childhood on that farm has made a lasting impression on his character. “I learned to always fight hard to achieve what I want,” he once told the New York Times. “In this regard, I was incredibly lucky.”

Wawrinka’s manager, Lawrence Frankopan of StarWing Sports, says his client’s image isn’t that of a superstar, but a man of the people: ‘We adopted ‘Stan the Man’ as a logo.” But there’s nothing ordinary about Wawrinka when he walks on to a tennis court. The barrel-chested Wawrinka looks more like a rugby centre than someone at home on a baseline. But his build, while unusual at the highest level of tennis, has given him great power and endurance on court, and they aren’t bad qualities to have when there are trophies on the line.

With three major titles to his name – after defeating Djokovic in this year’s US Open final – Wawrinka is on a level with Murray (though the pair are some distance behind Federer’s collection of 17 majors, Nadal’s 14 slams or Djokovic’s 12 majors). Across the game, there is great respect for Wawrinka, who, until he lost out to German teenager Alexander Zverev in the late-September showdown for the St. Petersburg title, had been on an astonishing winning streak in finals, with that sequence stopped at 11.

“Stan is a big match player,” Djokovic has said. “He loves to play on the big stage against big players, because that’s when he elevates his level of performance in his game. He just gets much better. He’s a very powerful player with a big serve and probably the best, most effective one-handed backhand in the world right now. He can play it all and has that variety in his game. He can be very dangerous for everybody.”

For years, Wawrinka’s friend and compatriot Federer was regarded as untouchable on the ATP World Tour. Time has, of course, moved on, and so has the sport. But Wawrinka, modest to the core, blushes at suggestions that tennis’ Big Four has become a Famous Five. “I don’t think it’s fair on them to put me in there. They have been there for more than 10 years. They have been winning everything and I think it is just not fair,” he has said. “The Big Four stay the Big Four, like that. I am me.”

Once again, with this the fourth successive season he has qualified among the top eight, Wawrinka will be a contender for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Every previous time he has arrived on the banks of the River Thames, Wawrinka has successfully navigated his way through his group to reach the knock-out stages, though he has never gone beyond the semi-finals. Perhaps this will be the year when the ‘Stanimal’ – who often hits top form at the crucial stage of a tournament – can make his first final in London and then go on to score this title.

Just don’t ever expect him to eulogise about his accomplishments.