Wawrinka overcame world number one Novak Djokovic in four thrilling sets in NY to add another major title to those he won at the Australian Open in 2014 and the French Open a year ago.
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In the women’s doubles final there was home American success as Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her Czech partner Lucie Safarova downed French duo Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Sunday’s victory made Wawrinka the first man to win the tournament after saving a match point since – yes, that’s right – Djokovic in 2011.
Following Stan Wawrinka’s win at the US Open Sunday, it may finally be time to officially expand the “Fab Four” in men’s tennis to the “Fantastic Five”.
“Today, before the final, I was really nervous like never before”. I am me. I have been achieving something that I never expect the last three years, I have been winning three grand slams and it’s more than incredible. “My goal is to give everything I have to be the best player I can”.
The two mega-stars within the sport of tennis did battle against one another for nearly four hours, before Wawrinka was finally able to see out the match, beating Djokovic by a scoreline of 6-7 6-4 7-5 6-3.
“First, I think it’s not fair for them to put me there. Because of you I am where I am today”, he said. Take that trio of highest-stakes matches out of the equation, and Wawrinka is 0-19 in all other matches against the top man.
The Swiss claimed his only point of the tie-break in an astonishing rally of attack and counter-attack, and his groundstrokes began to flow as he took control of the final in the second set.
Djokovic had 17 break point chances and took just three of them.
“The Serb star also admitted that he came close to skipping the tournament as a serious wrist injury threatened to compromise his assault on a third major title of the year”.
Djokovic said after his defeat that Wawrinka, ranked third in the world, “deserves to be in the mix” with tennis’ heralded quartet, but the Swiss disagrees.
Painful blisters slowed the world No.1 during the final set of his loss to Stan Wawrinka in NY.
It’s a statement of sort for the 31-year-old, the oldest US Open champ in more than 40 years.
“This is incredible”, he added.
“I played a lot of tennis, I am completely empty. It has been an wonderful night again”.
Djokovic refused to pin the reason for his loss on the toe injury but he did admit that regular difficulties with his right arm did little to help his cause.
Against Djokovic, he faced an opponent who had benefited from one of the easiest passages ever to a grand slam final, with two of the Serb’s matches ending in early retirements and another in a walkover.
“After playing seven, eight months of the season, obviously you’re not very fresh”.
We both felt it. I don’t want to come to the court and lose a final.
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“I saw he was struggling physically”, Wawrinka said.
