Another gripping fortnight on the terre battue of Roland Garros is nearly in the books, with two former titlists set to square off for the Coupe des Mousquetaires. There have been no shortage of storylines throughout the first 14 days of the tournament and the same can be said for Sunday's championship between third seed Stan Wawrinka and fourth seed Rafael Nadal. Nadal has been careening towards a date with destiny, marching into a 10th final in the French capital without dropping a set. As ruthless as the Spaniard had been in streaking to the titles in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid, he has been arguably even more impressive at Roland Garros, relinquishing just 29 games - an average of just...
The backhand was beautiful, as always. But what impressed Stan Wawrinka the most about his 6-7(6), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1 Roland Garros semi-final victory on Friday against Andy Murray was his mental toughness and the fight he showed against the top seed. Wawrinka fell behind two sets to one after Murray answered the Swiss star's impressive second set by taking the third set. But Wawrinka, who had lost to Murray during the 2016 Roland Garros semi-finals, stayed in the match and squeaked out the fourth set tie-break. Wawrinka then ran away with the fifth set to reach his second Roland Garros title match. Four hours. Five sets. One victor. How @stanwawrinka got revenge on Murray.#RG17 pic.twitter.com/yXhXQv73mn — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June...
Stan Wawrinka will challenge for a fourth Grand Slam championship after hitting 87 winners to edge Andy Murray 6-7(8), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1 in a pulsating semi-final at Roland Garros on Friday. The Swiss will look to win his second Roland Garros crown when he faces either nine-time champion Rafael Nadal or Dominic Thiem in Sunday’s final. Wawrinka won the clay-court major in 2015, beating Novak Djokovic, and also counts triumphs at the 2014 Australian Open and 2016 US Open in his major haul. "I'm really happy to be in the final," said Wawrinka. "I think it was quite a tough match today. A big battle. I want to enjoy it a lot, because, as I say, it's not all...
Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka will be the first to admit that much of their clay seasons didn’t meet their lofty standards, but they’ve raised their games at the right moment for a rematch on Friday at Roland Garros. Murray defeated the 2015 champion in four sets at this very round last year, but the rematch is one some tennis critics may not have predicted at the start of the fortnight. Murray arrived in Paris with a 4-4 record on clay this year and lost before the quarter-finals in three of his four events on the dirt. Dropping sets in his first two matches this fortnight to Andrey Kuznetsov and Martin Klizan didn’t do much to fuel optimism, but he...
