7msports > Tennis Video > Wawrinka beats injured Nadal to win first Grand Slam

Wawrinka beats injured Nadal to win first Grand Slam

Monday, January 27 2014 by SNTV
  • Intro:

    Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka defeats injured top seed Rafael Nadal of Spain to win his first Grand Slam title with a 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory in the Australian Open final. The eight seed beat the odds as he had never previously beaten or even taken a set off Nadal in 12 meetings.

    Script:

    12 matches played, 12 matches won, 25 sets to nil. Those were the prematch statistics in Rafael Nadal's favour as he took on Stanislas Wawrinka in the Australian Open final.

    But despite his underdog status, Wawrinka had already knocked out defending champion Novak Djokovic on his way to the final and he looked in the mood to end his run of loses against Nadal.
    After dominating from the back of the court with his powerful ground strokes he took the first set in style 6-3.

    Having won his first ever set against Nadal, Wawrinka continued his assault on the world number one. A blistering backhand return gave him an early break in the second.

    But it was clear the Spaniard was struggling, a back injury forced a medical time-out and Wawrinka began to lose his cool.

    Nadal returned after a six and a half minute break but couldn't couldn't stop the Wawrinka onslaught, 2 sets to nil. The pre match predictions pulverized.

    But as is so often the case, Nadal managed to find the strength to launch a comeback in the third, showing incredible resilience to take the set 6-3, as Wawrinka's errors began to increase.
    It looked like Nadal's pain was appearing to subside.

    But it was only a temporary shift in momentum, and the back problems were still hampering the world number one. Determined not to retire he fought on honorably. But on the other side of the net was a player in the form of his life.

    Wawrinka somehow found the composure to break Nadal once more - and then serve out the match to win his first grand slam title at the age of 28.

    A muted celebration in respect to his injured opponent. Wawrinka's stunning win moves him up to world number three and banishes those statistics to history.

    As for Nadal, only he knows how serious this injury may be.

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