Stan Wawrinka Stuns And Serena Williams Dazzles In French Open Finals

This weekend, the eventful Roland Garros came to a close, crowning two champions. One was a bit of a shock and the other was business as usual, as Stan Wawrinka and Serena Williams both took home the coveted French Open trophy.

Stan Wawrinka Stuns Novak Djokovic

After never making it past Grand Slam quarterfinals before 2013 — even then he only made the QF twice, losing 29 out of 31 tournaments in the early rounds between 2005 and 2012 — Wawrinka has won two Grand Slams in two years.

And this has to be disappointing for Novak Djokovic, who was searching for his first French Open title. After losing to Rafael Nadal three years in a row — twice in the finals — he finally torched the defending champion in straight sets. So many assumed after defeating Nadal in the quarters and Andy Murray in the semis, no one was going to stop the Serbian athlete, who was also riding a 28-match winning streak.

But after going down one-set, Wawrinka battled back to defeat the number one in the world in four sets: 4-6, 6-4. 6-3, 6-4. Basically, the match stats were awfully even, with both players committing roughly the same amount of unforced errors and just hovering above the 50 percent line on second serve points won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzLC_CVvLdw

However, Wawrinka was simply more aggressive and was able to strengthen his service game as the match continued: he had 60 winners to Novak’s 30 and won 76 percent of his first serve points. On top of this, he had plenty of opportunities to break Djokovic, needing only four conversions out of 15 to win the match.

Next, both set off for Wimbledon, where Novak is the defending champ and Wawrinka tries to top his 2014 results — quarterfinals — which was the best in his career.

Serena Williams Dazzles In French Open Final

At the same time, Serena Williams displayed why she may be the greatest female athlete of all-time by toppling adversity to take out Lucie Safarova in a three-set stunner.

Williams has had a rough Roland Garros, with five out of her seven matches going to three sets. Yet despite uncertain play, a whole lot of unforced errors and even the flu, she displayed her overall domination of the WTA.

And Lucie had plenty of opportunities to take this match from Serena, who was obviously not playing at the top of her game: she had 42 unforced errors to Safarova’s 17, only made 55 percent of first serves and only won 45 percent of her second serve points. Safarova also broke Williams four times, going four for four on break points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzUtFZo8bKQ

But eventually, after winning the second set in a tiebreaker, Serena proved too much as she overpowered Lucie with 34 winners. It also did not help that Safarova only won a little under 53 percent of her service points.

Still, her 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2 victory secured her 20th title, which is only two behind Steffi Graf for the most all-time.

Article by Anthony Falco