As the victor here in 2015, Wawrinka already has proved his clay-court prowess, and as he showed Friday when outlasting world No. 1 Andy Murray in five sets, he has the power to beat anyone.
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And then, in the space of 30 minutes, the world No 1 Scot was put to the sword in brutal fashion as the Swiss enforcer sealed an epic 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 victory. You might know him by the name of Roger Federer.
The Swiss player drew first blood in the first set after breaking Murray’s serve in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead.
Unlike Nadal’s straightforward sprint past Thiem, Wawrinka’s marathon against Murray wound its way through spots in which one player, then the other, appeared to wrest control, then cede it.
– World number one Murray clawed back from a set point down to win the first set in a tiebreak 7-6 (6) in just over an hour.
The same couldn’t be said of 2016 finalist Murray, who also dealt with illness on the eve of the tournament and had struggled overall to back up his remarkable play the last seven months of 2016. I did well considering.
“I’ve proved that I’ve always turned up for finals”.
“So I have to be proud of that”.
“But Stan is playing unbelievable, no?” A lot of long points.
Play was suspended on Tuesday just before 1530 local time (1330 GMT) during the first two women’s quarter-finals at Roland Garros. “So I only have myself to blame for that, for the way I played coming into the tournament”.
Kei Nishikori’s French Open ended with an appropriately erratic performance against top-ranked Andy Murray in the quarterfinals.
Yes, the Bryan brothers (Bob and Mike) are the most accomplished team of all time, with 16 Slam titles, but even with this dynamic duo out of Roland Garros, the U.S. is still being represented well. “Today (he) was maybe more erratic than usual, but I do think a little bit of that was to do with the conditions being hard”.
But what attack and what defence.
– Wawrinka hit an incredible 87 winners to Murray’s 36.
Thiem broke his opponent’s serve in the first game of the match before Nadal repeated the trick in the following game.
Combating Wawrinka’s offence, Murray bellowed “Let’s go, c’mon”, after surviving a long game mid-set.
Murray clawed his way back with successive breaks as the contest tightened, winning six of the last eight next games to steal the set.
Wawrinka is standing in his way.
The day off on Saturday provides both Nadal and Wawrinka a chance to rest and refuel, but Murray, whose hopes for the French Open title were crushed by Wawrinka, will take the time to start focusing on Wimbledon.
Murray said: “I lost a little bit of speed on my serve, which wasn’t allowing me to dictate many points”.
“Certainly the matches are not as physical, so going through matches like I did today is a good step for me. Sometimes he was very smart at shooting good balls, which made me hesitate”. I didn’t have enough weight on my shot.
“There are a few things that I for sure would have liked to have done a bit differently”. That is really what I struggled with and what I found so frustrating a year ago. It’s the moment I have to be very happy. “I was not on the top of my game and the result everybody saw”.
Wawrinka had a letdown right then, though, wasting his chance to win the set by dumping a backhand into the net.
But there is no doubt that he is a big match player. “I was pretty far away from mybest tennis today”, Thiem said.
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– The 31-year-old Spaniard has yet to drop a set at the championships this year.
