Stan a sparkling price for fourth Slam after US Open triumph
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Who am I? I’ve won as many Grand Slams as Andy Murray, I’ve won three since Roger Federer last won one, I’m yet to lose a Grand Slam final and I’ve claimed them at three different venues? I’m Stanislas Wawrinka of course.
Stan the Man as he’s more affectionately known has never been closer to justifying his nickname after a momentous four-set triumph over world number one Novak Djokovic in the US Open final.
Afterwards the modest Swiss admitted that he had not even set out with the ambition of winning the title in New York, saying that he would have been happy simply to make the final.
For anyone who has been tracking Wawrinka’s late blossoming, such a modus operandi entering a Slam final would seem ludicrous.
Hopefully anyone who read these pages before making their bets on the final might have agreed with the sentiment and backed the number three seed to upset the odds at 12/5 and take Djokovic down in the Big Apple.
In winning his third Slam in as many years, 31-year-old Wawrinka also joined two very elite groups in the men’s’ game.
Firstly he became just the fourth man to have won all of his first three Grand Slam finals and perhaps more relevantly to his chances of winning more – he is now just the third man to have defeated Djokovic multiple times in any of the big four tournament showpieces.
It’s probably about the right time to mention that Stan is now priced as 12/1 third favourite to win the Australian Open 2017, aka the next blue riband event in the tennis calendar, which is a giant leap back from Murray at 3s and Djokovic at 8/11.
Of course the Serbian is still the benchmark Down Under with his five titles in Melbourne, yet Wawrinka is the only man to have stopped him making it six straight.
If Murray’s Melbourne misery continues (he’s 0-5 from finals), along with Djokovic’s post Career-Slam dip underpinned by the appearance of niggling injuries, then this price looks an absolute sizzler.
<strong>All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.</strong>
