Mumbai: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
There was some celebration at the end of the match with Wawrinka being honoured with a video montage and a specially made photo collection. And just days ago, it seemed Wawrinka would not be allowed to play in New York one final time as he had not been given a wild card. In the early stages though there was a danger that he would become one of the many who would fall by the wayside, despite having the tools and game to dominate – especially that awe-inspiring and powerful one-handed backhand. “But I came to a deep realisation. Losing is a part of life. Nobody wins all the time. The question, then, is how do you react to defeat? Do you become demotivated and defensive? Or do you learn from it? A defeat is a huge opportunity to figure out how to become a better player. It is an opportunity to analyse. Instead of taking it badly, you can find new things to practise and better ways to adapt. I never try to do things for people to remember me in a certain way or a different way.”
On Monday night, 10 years after he triumphed at the US Open, the 41-year-old Swiss played his last Grand Slam match, losing 6-7(4), 6-7(3), 0-6 to Matteo Berrettini. Wawrinka’s tie against Berrettini took place on the 8125-seater Grandstand court – the third biggest stadium in the Billie Jean King Tennis Centre While some of the biggest players and former Grand Slam winners were honoured with a chance to play their final match at one of the two show courts. The man from Lausanne comes from the same generation of men’s tennis as the Big 3. The standing ovation he received at the US Open came a few days after his compatriot Federer, with whom he won gold in men’s doubles at the 2008 Olympics, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
“I had lost a lot of matches in my career,” Wawrinka had said to The Times in 2016. Asked, during the post-match press conference, if he hopes to be in that list one day, Wawrinka said: “I never see it that way.
Each of his three Grand Slam titles came by beating the reigning world No.1 player at the time. The mood in the match against Berrettini was competitive, but there were also plenty of smiles, before, during and after the match.
