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Stan Wawrinka bows out in the First Round; To drop out of the Top 250

By Keshav Gopalan

PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 28: Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland reacts during the mens singles first round match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain during day two of the 2018 French Open at Roland Garros on May 28, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 28: Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland reacts during the mens singles first round match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain during day two of the 2018 French Open at Roland Garros on May 28, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images) /
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Stan Wawrinka can’t seem to catch a break. The former world number 3 has had issues with his knee since last Wimbledon and was looking to be playing better for a brief moment in his first match in Geneva against Jared Donaldson. However, Wawrinka has crashed out of the first round of the French Open against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Lopez also beat Wawrinka in the first round of the 2014 French Open.

Because of this loss, Wawrinka will drop out of the top 250 when the rankings are next published. What comes next for the struggling Swiss?

Knee problems flare up again

Final Score: 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3

The match was tight for the first four sets. Lopez won the first set while Wawrinka won the second and third set. In the fourth set, Wawrinka captured an early break to go up 1-0 in the set. However, Lopez broke back in the 7th game of the set and went on to win the set in the tiebreak at 7-5.

In the last set, Wawrinka looked…miserable. Constantly clutching his knee, not going for (usually) gettable shots and unable to serve properly, Wawrinka looked like he was ready to give up. It’s clear that his knee is still a very real issue, and perhaps in the chase to not lose his ranking points, Wawrinka has (again) come back a little too early when he should have been resting and rehabilitating.

What’s next?

Wildcards. The Swiss player is too well established to not get wildcards into the main draw of virtually every tournament he decides to enter. While the next sensible step would be to take a break from the sport, it wouldn’t be very surprising (albeit very saddening) that Wawrinka might hang his boots up and call it a day. 

But if Wawrinka feels he has enough fight in him left, the logical step will be to skip the grass season, even if it is a hotbed for ranking points he desperately needs. He’s defending only 20 points all grass season, so it won’t make a huge difference if he decides to skip it.

The next tournament Wawrinka should play should be the Rogers Cup. It’s two months from now, which means he’ll get enough rest and at the same time lose only 20 points in the process.

We wish the best of luck to Stan and hope he makes a speedy recovery and hits that magnificent backhand to win matches again.

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