That illustrious quartet have won 42 of the past 47 Grand Slams, though Wawrinka now has the same number of major titles as Olympic champion Murray.
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Wawrinka might not want to recognise it, but there aren’t many players on the ATP tour who can say they’ve beaten Djokovic twice in the absolute prime of his career when he’s been – for the most part – playing tennis on another stratosphere to his competitors.
Novak Djokovic was unwilling to make excuses as he lamented missed opportunities in his US Open final loss to Stan Wawrinka. “He was tougher mentally”, said Djokovic, offering two of the highest compliments a tennis player can receive from the talented Serb.
“There was so much emotion with the crowd, the atmosphere, the stadium”.
Djokovic had not played his best at Flushing Meadows and had three of his opponents retire with injury.
Djokovic even apologised to Wawrinka but the tension was palpable when play resumed, as a sprightly Djokovic earned three break points but failed to capitalise. We both felt the demanding match that we played today physically.
“If you look, yes, I have three grand slams”. When we start five minutes before the match talking, last few things with Magnus, I start to cry.
Wawrinka trailed 5-2 in the first but won three straight games and forced a tiebreak.
“He loves to play in the big matches”, Djokovic said of the Swiss.
Wawrinka had won just four of 23 previous matches against Djokovic but two of those had come on the way to winning Grand Slam titles, and the contest brought out the best in him once again.
“He deserves to be in the mix, no doubt about it”, said Djokovic.
And in the wake of his success, the No 3 seed revealed he had suffered his worst-ever nerves moments before he was due on court.
Defending champion Djokovic had completed just three matches in six rounds at the US Open after a freaky run blighted by injury withdrawals, but paid the price for his lack of court time when Wawrinka dragged him into a gruelling duel. “Well done”, said Djokovic to Wawrinka during his on-court post-match interview. And I was just unlucky in some moments.
The gist: After adding this trophy to those from the Australian Open in 2014, and the French Open in 2015, is it time to focus on completing a career Grand Slam by winning Wimbledon in 2017?
“They have not only been winning, but being in semi-finals, final every time”.
For critics, Wawrinka’s triumph over Djokovic could not be considered as an upset. Instead of attacking the ball early, as is his wont, Wawrinka allowed himself into a defensive mindset and Djokovic took advantage to snatch the set away in a lopsided tiebreaker.
The 31-year-old Wawrinka is the oldest US Open men’s champion since Ken Rosewall won in 1970 at 35 years of age.
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Despite his latest victory and a growing resume, Wawrinka insisted he was not in the same class as the Big Four and would not expect to join the club any time soon. “We were both injured throughout the year, but we stick together”. I had plenty of them. Wawrinka won five of seven points on the second serve, facing a break point.
