A deceptive opening win as a starting spark for Stan Wawrinka?

In his first game on Sunday, Stan Wawrinka outpointed three-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray and played only six games. However, for the rest of the tournament, the Swiss will remain a surprise bag.

In the long-awaited duel with Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka does not give his experienced opponent the slightest chance in the first round of the French Open. The disappointing Scotsman has won just six games, just once in his 237 Grand Slam appearances.

Little goes hand in hand with the 33-year-old, Murray himself even speaks of “probably the worst loss of his career” in a major tournament. “I hope he does not play like this until the end of the year”, does not hide the unsatisfactory performance.

The inaugural victory as the initial spark?

Reason enough for Wawrinka not to overestimate Sunday’s clear win. The first real resistance test is yet to come, in the second round against Germany’s Dominik Koepfer he should expect significantly more resistance on Wednesday. However, the easy start could turn into a huge advantage, especially in the situation the three-time Grand Slam champion finds himself in.

Because, on the one hand, the French-speaking country often needs a little time to get started in the big tournaments before finding its best game, in order to pose a serious threat even to the biggest favorites. The longer he is in the tournament, the more comfortable Wawrinka usually feels. If the Swiss can survive the first two or three rounds without using too much force, the journey can still go a long way, even in a major tournament.

On the other hand, the surprising separation from his former coach Magnus Norman shouldn’t happen to Wawrinka without a trace. Especially the time chosen so shortly before the French Open seems strange. With Norman he had won three Grand Slam titles between 2014 and 2016, the first separation of the two in October 2017 Wawrinka had not been able to cope well. The new sole responsible technician Daniel Vallverdu should now avoid something similar.

Question mark behind Wawrinka form status

Wawrinka also lacks match practice at the highest level. After the long break from the crown, the current world number 17 is only playing one game at the ATP level before the French Open, which he quickly loses to Italian Lorenzo Musetti. At the Challenger tournament in Prague in late August, he no longer competes in the quarterfinals due to a sore thigh.

And the bottom line is that even after the good performance against Murray, there are numerous questions behind the form of the 2015 French Open winner. He is not counted among the favorites. Yet that is exactly what Wawrinka wanted. It wouldn’t be the first time that Romand has cheated the entire competition as an outsider.