Keep going, Stan!

It's nice to see Wawrinka's passion for the game!

Being 40 years old and still getting some matches in the Bratislava Challenger between ATP Basel and ATP Athens, that's dedication! Fast courts are a good thing for Wawrinka these days. If you look at the results of his matches this season, there's quite a clear pattern: He can still play very good matches against "lesser opponents" that don't have the tools to prevent him from dictating (his groundstrokes are still amazing). However, when he is coming up against better opposition, it's a really tough task these days. They can take time away, put more returns into play, and move him around more, and as mentioned, it becomes an uphill battle from there, with his age. As usual, Botic remains an enigma... sometimes he is completely unplayable and can beat anyone on the tour. Other days, he could lose to almost anyone on tour. We saw a great match against Fonseca and a dominant performance against Lehecka. However, we have also seen a bad performance against Spizzirri, two losses to Opelka, and another one to Quinn in his last match. Something that immediately comes to mind is his match against Gasquet in the first round in mud-slow Bucharest earlier this year. He was able to take control of the match against his elderly opponent and was about to win in straight sets before unraveling and losing, taking a 6-1 in the third set. Botic has been serving well indoors, but he has really struggled with his forehand lately. Fortunately for him, his backhand has been rather good, but it's something to keep an eye on. This match depends almost entirely on which version of Botic shows up; if he is in the "crazy-court-coverage" mode, this should be rather straightforward for him...