Major Talk #2 – Stan Wawrinka

Major Talk: a series of interviews conducted by French player Alizé Lim with some of the tour’s brightest stars. Her latest guest is Stan Wawrinka, the three-times Grand Slam champion and current world No 17. In a fun discussion, the Swiss talks about a variety of subjects, from how he’s handling life in Covid-19 lockdown with his daughter, how he is enjoying connecting with some of his peers on Instagram Live, some of the highs and lows of his career, his hopes for tennis to return in 2020 and how at 35, he still harbours hopes of winning another big title.

Wawrinka has been keeping himself as fit as possible but believes it will be hard for tennis to return in the near future.

“I hope for the world that we will all be at the stage that we can compete again in September. That would mean that all went well. Currently we’re so much in the middle of this crisis, that it is difficult to see the end.”

Wawrinka won his first Grand Slam title when he was 28 and admits that it took him time to work out how to play his best on the biggest occasions.

“I have always been emotional, but I managed to control my emotions, much more in these last few years than at the beginning of my career. I feel things very strongly. It has been a fight during my whole career to fight that and to transform it into a strength.”

And as he enters the second half of his thirties, seeing his old friend Roger Federer continue to compete for Grand Slam titles has been an inspiration.

“If I can be at my best level until 40, it will be amazing. But when we watch Roger Federer, we never say that we can accomplish the same. Anyway, he is an another league. The advantage to seeing him play so well, so late, it means that it is possible to physically hold up. So, in fact, he is opening some doors too, on the mental side too, to imagine that maybe I want to play longer. I am 35 now.”