French Open: Stan Wawrinka threatens to crash after defeat

After his first-round defeat to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, French Open finalist Stan Wawrinka will fall far behind in the ATP world rankings.

It was the moment that a master player like Stan Wawrinka actually exploited in cold blood. That moment on a hot Monday afternoon at the French Open, when Wawrinka was leading 2-0 in a break in the fourth set. 3:2 for the Romand, three service games won separated him from the opening victory against the Spaniard Guillermo Garcia Lopez on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

But hopes of a march through to Roland Garros’ first-round success were quickly dashed, Wawrinka immediately won the 3-3 re-break – and from then on it didn’t get much better for him, the 2015 champion and ancestor finalists. He lost the fourth act 5:7 in the tiebreak, then the 2:6, 6:3, 6:4, 6:7 (5:7), 3:6 defeat was unstoppable for the exhausted Swiss. The conclusion was plain and simple: Wawrinka is far from being Wawrinka again, at least not the impetuous, brute, physically robust competitor who had played most of the leading roles in Paris in recent years.

“It wasn’t any knee problems that were to blame,” Wawrinka said later, “I’m physically okay.” Conversely, from Wawrinkas point of view, this meant that especially with the big points, with the key scenes, the natural mental hardness, that which is sometimes also called a sporty killer instinct, was missing. The day after next Monday, convalescent Wawrinka will find himself at number 260 in the charts, a deep, abyssal fall.

Garcia Lopez had been considered an uncomfortable opponent from the outset, partly because he had already defeated Wawrinka in the first round at this Grand Slam venue four years ago. The Spaniard is a man who plays technically well, has tenacious fighting courage and doesn’t let himself get hung up quickly once things go against him. This was to become apparent at the latest when Wawrinka had decisively turned a 0:1 set deficit into a 2:1 lead. The 33-year-old showed just under two hours of decent, concentrated, thoughtful tennis, especially considering how little playing practice he had this season.

The problem was that it didn’t disturb his opponent too much, Garcia Lopez simply believed in his chance – and he got it when Wawrinka brought him back in set four with the loss of serve at the worst moment, 3:3. The expression of the old, new coach Magnus Norman also darkened in the stands.

In the final act of this three-and-a-half-hour roller coaster ride, Wawrinka, tired and frustrated, could no longer prevent him from having to pack his bags again after this first and only mission. And that for the first time since the French Open 2003 no Swiss men’s player was represented in the second round of a Grand Slam, Ivo Heuberger, Michael Kratochvil, Marc Rosset and Roger Federer retired at the start.

Federer, however, triumphed four weeks later in Wimbledon. That should not even be a dream for Mr Wawrinka. He now needs every single victory at every tournament to regain self-confidence. “It just takes time. If necessary, I’ll even play Challenger to get back forward,” Wawrinka said at the end of this dull day.