Stan Wawrinka has captured his 50th grand slam victory under the tutelage of Magnus Norman to enter the Roland Garros quarter-finals and the dream team are looking to add a third major trophy to the Swiss’ tally this fortnight in Paris.
Since teaming up with Norman in the spring of 2013, Wawrinka has made the quarter-finals or better in 10 of the 13 grand slams he has entered.
Wawrinka had done that just twice in the 32 majors he played prior to teaming up with the Swede.
“It’s not so much about me, it’s more about wanting to help him,” Norman says modestly when asked to reflect on those 50 grand slam match wins they’ve amassed together.
“It’s been going really well since we started and I’m more happy for Stan, because I know how many years he was trying and how many years of hard work is behind these results. So I’m happy he’s been able to finally produce good tennis at big tournaments.”
In the last-eight on Tuesday, Wawrinka faces grand slam quarter-final debutant Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who lost to the Swiss quite easily, less than two weeks ago in Geneva.
It’s the second time Wawrinka will face an opponent he had just beaten at his home tournament in the previous week, having also taken out Lukas Rosol in both Geneva and Paris within a three-day period.
“I think every tournament is a new tournament. Same for Stan, coming to French Open trying to defend his title, Stan doesn’t think like that. It’s a new tournament, every year starts from zero and you try to take as many points as possible throughout the year and if you take them in January or May it doesn’t really matter,” explains Norman, who will be playing in the Perrier Legends Trophy at Roland Garros this week.
“And the same goes in this case. It’s a new match, new circumstances, Albert is playing well, he’s confident, obviously Stan is as well.
“It can change very much from one week to another. We saw he played Rosol in Geneva as well and almost lost to Rosol here (in Paris), so things can turn around one way or the other very quickly. It’s a new match and we have to start from zero.”
Wawrinka is 6-0 against Ramos-Vinolas but they’ve had tight battles in the past.
“He’s a really dangerous player. He’s a player that maybe from my side, yeah, you don’t think he’s going to be that tough, but when you play against him he’s a tough player to play,” said the third-seeded Wawrinka.
Prior to capturing the title in Geneva, Wawrinka had struggled this clay season and not many fancied his chances of defending his Roland Garros title.
Magnus Norman (@normansweden) at #RGLegendsPerrier pic.twitter.com/tVrWH0X035
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 30, 2016
Norman believes winning Geneva was a crucial turning point coming into Paris.
“He was struggling to win matches and get confidence. It was very important for Stan to, maybe not win the title, but at least to play two, three matches in a row to get the rhythm of winning and playing again so that was important, more important this year maybe than last year,” said Norman, a former French Open finalist.
“Because last year he already beat Rafa (Nadal) in Rome, playing semi-finals in Rome. He had already played quite a lot of matches. This year he struggled in Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid, not playing so many matches, so it was more important this year than last year.”
The 40-year-old Swede doesn’t think his charge is facing any extra pressure being the defending champion here.
“We knew that the tennis was there because he was playing well in practice, but in the matches he was struggling to find it, so it was more about that than being stressed of having to defend something,” says Norman.
Wawrinka becomes a more dangerous player with each round, particularly at the majors and Norman does not have a particular explanation for the Swiss’ superior record in best-of-five match play.
“The more tennis he plays, the better he is. The last few years he has a better record in best-of-five sets than best-of-three. For some reason he’s an aerobic player, he needs time to get going and he can go for a long time. Best-of-five suits him well and playing long tournaments and a lot of tennis seems to bring the best out of him,” says Norman.
Rain has been a real pain for tournament organisers and with more bad weather expected, it’s looking more and more likely that the players will have to play on back-to-back days.
“For sure it’s going to be an issue but at the same time it’s more or less the same for everybody. But you want to save as much energy as possible if you have to play back-to-back days. If you play five sets compared to a guy who maybe plays three sets of course it’s going to be a huge difference and it’s going to be an issue. But there’s nothing we can do about it,” says Norman.
Asked if a line needs to be drawn somewhere on how many consecutive days a player should play before a decision is made on pushing the day of the final, Norman said: “We have to finish the tournament so…
“But a roof would be nice,” he added with a laugh.
On his part, Wawrinka is feeling confident ahead of his quarter-final on Tuesday and is happy with how he has stepped up mentally when he needed to so far this fortnight.
“I’m still around. I’m a good tennis player. Physically and in terms of game play I can deliver. Mentally there were ups and downs at some points, but if I look at what’s been happening since the start of the tournament, when I need to be there, I am,” said the 31-year-old.
