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Does Stan Wawrinka compete with the big 4?

6th October, 2017
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Should Stan Wawrinka be included in the Big 5 tennis players? (Image: Creative Commons)
Roar Guru
6th October, 2017
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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray – these players are popularly known as the Big 4 of tennis, having won 19, 16, 12 and 3 Glad Slams respectively.

Yet, there is someone else who should be on that list. Stan Wawrinka has won three Grand Slams, so should the Big 4 be extended to include Wawrinka as well?

Before discussing that, a comparison between Murray and Wawrinka would help to decide whether Stan is fit to join those ranks, and whether Murray should remain in it. 

Wawrinka’s three Grand Slams were won by defeating the then current World Number 1, which makes the achievement even more stupendous. He defeated Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open and Djokovic in both the 2015 French Open and the 2016 US Open. 

However, apart from these three fantastic performances, Wawrinka just has a solitary one other Grand Slam final appearance. This was against Nadal in the 2017 French Open Final, and Nadal steamrolled him in straight sets. He has entered semifinals of Grand Slams only three more times at the US Open in 2013 and 2015, and the Australian Open in 2015.

Wawrinka has also won a solitary Masters 1000 and is the runner-up only thrice more. His total tournament wins are 16, comprising three Grand Slams, one Masters, three ATP 500 and nine ATP 250 Tournaments. His total tournament finals are 28, and final losses are one in the Majors, three at the Masters, five in the ATP 500 and seven in the ATP 250.

At the Olympics, Wawrinka has won the doubles gold once with Federer in 2008, and has been part of a Davis Cup winning team once as well, with Federer playing an important role. 

Stan Wawrinka Tennis US Open 2016

(Kyodo)

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Let’s look at what Murray has done in comparison.  Murray, like Wawrinka, has won three Majors. While Wawrinka has a total 16 tournament wins, Murray has 45. The latter’s breakdown goes as follows: three Grand Slams, one year end championships, 14 Masters 1000, two Olympic Gold medals, nine ATP 500 and 16 ATP 250. 

Murray’s 14 Masters wins making him the ninth ranking winner in that competition. Only Djokovic (30), Nadal (30), Federer (26), Ivan Lendl (22), John McEnroe (19), Jimmy Connors (17), Andre Agassi (17) and Bjorn Borg (15) are ahead of him.  

More importantly, greats like Becker, Edberg and Sampras have fewer. In comparison, Wawrinka has just three Masters and even lesser-known players like Andrei Medvedev and Juan Carlos Ferrero, with four, have more. In fact, as many as 27 players have four or more Masters 1000 titles while Wawrinka has 3. 

Similarly, in comparison to Warinka’s overall 28 finals, Murray has as many as 67. More importantly, he has also reached as many as 11 Finals (three wins) in Majors and 21 Masters finals (14 wins). This is far superior to Stan’s performances. 

It is also a pertinent stat that of his 22 Finals losses, 15 are to Federer, Nadal or Djokovic. Of his eight losses in the Grand Slams, three are to Federer and five to Djokovic. Curiously, Murray and Nadal have not met at a Grand Slam final. His three wins in Majors include two against Djokovic and one against Raonic.

At the Masters too, of his seven losses in finals, five are against Djokovic and one against Nadal. The only member not of top three who has defeated him in a Masters final is Cilic. Murray has also defeated Novak five times in Masters finals and has also defeated Federer twice. Incredibly, he has a clay court Masters win over Nadal at the Madrid Open.

Murray’s two Olympic Golds were won with wins over Federer and Del Potro. He also spectacularly featured in Great Britain’s victorious 2015 Davis Cup campaign, where he won three matches for his team (both singles and doubles) in each and every round to lead his team to a first Davis Cup triumph in 79 years. 

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One final comparison where Murray is way ahead of Wawrinka is in wins over top ten players. Murray has 101, while Stan has 50. Of Murray’s 82 losses versus top ten players, 56 are against the big three – Federer (14), Novak (25) and Rafa (17).

This shows that in his entire career he has a 72-26 win-loss position against other top ten players. He also has 11 wins each against Federer and Novak and seven versus Nadal, which in itself is no mean feat. In contrast, Stan’s record against all three is worrying, with him having a 3-20 head to head against Federer, 5-19 versus Djokovic, and 3-16 versus Nadal. 

The above analysis shows that although Stan and Murray have three wins each in the Majors, the achievements of Murray are way ahead. This should caution against him being included in an extended Big 5.

However, Murray has had extraordinarily consistent performances since 2008, including winning eight of his first ten Masters finals between 2008 and 2011. His spectacular performance in the second half of 2016, which took him to world Number 1, and ended with a win over Djokovic in the year ending championships, has also shown he is a worthy entrant of the Big 4 club. 

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