When you're in an unfamiliar city, driving to a tournament for the first time, a GPS is a great 21st century device.
Of course, it helps if you notice that you're driving north, when you meant to drive south. That costs me fifteen minutes, and after parking, jogging to the stadium, picking up my media pass, finding the media room, dropping off my stuff, and hurrying to the Grandstand court, Simone Bolelli and Stan Wawrinka are well under way.
Wawrinka leads 3-1, but there follows a passage of twelve uninterrupted points going against the server. The two players then exchange holds, and at 4-5 Bolelli concedes a set point at 30-40. He saves it, then another, but a forced FH error gives Wawrinka the set. Wawrinka lets out a deafening roar and beats his chest, grimacing wildly in the direction of his entourage.
Um, strike that. Wawrinka says "Allez!" to himself, gives a quick fist pump, then walks to the chair. There are maybe 200 people in the stands on this second court at the Rexall Centre, York University. Maybe a couple of them are coaches and friends of Wawrinka, but if they are, they're making less noise than he is.
Stan Wawrinka is one of the men I'll be following at this tournament as one of the potential "next wave" in the ATP. There's a curious anonymity about him. Members of the opposite gender are better placed than I to comment on a player's Hottness. I believe Bolelli has his admirers, though on court there's nothing flashy about him, except perhaps for a couple of cord wristbands on his non-hitting arm. Wawrinka, though, looks like the kind of fellow a well brought up girl might marry after dating a couple of chaps like Bolelli.
Before he serves, Wawrinka takes four balls in his left hand, like a teaching pro getting ready for a FH-BH-volley-overhead drill. He tosses them quickly, then flips one BH to one ball kid, checks the remaining three, decides, and taps the rejected candidate to the other ball kid behind him. He towels off after 80% of the points. This makes him moderately high maintenance for the ball kids, but by no means for the line officials: a couple of times Wawrinka and Bolelli ask the umpire about line calls, and at one key point - 5-5, deuce, in the second set, a Bolelli first serve is called good. No Hawkeye on this court: Wawrinka points out to the chair umpire that he can see the mark, the umpire replies that he can't see it from where he's sitting, and Wawrinka moves over to receive serve at the ad court.
Last weekend, ESPN Classic was showing the 1985 Montreal Final between Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe. The match has made little imprint on history - McEnroe won 7-5, 6-3 - but as well as the serve and volley play, I was struck by the general, pervasive truculence displayed throughout the match. At one point, Lend l sat in his chair and refused to carry on until he'd spoken to the tournament supervisor and referee, and both players continually upbraided and goaded the long suffering umpire.
In the 2008 ATP, players get on with it. As a hacker level player, what strikes me most at court side is how low the players get on the ground strokes, particularly on the BH side. I resolve to do more squats and lunges in the weights room. Bolelli saves three match points, and we reach a tiebreak. The wind is now a factor, but if the players have noticed it, they don't show it.
At 4-4 in the TB, a fine baseline rally concludes with a beautifully played drop shot by Wawrinka that Bolelli sprints for but can't reach. He pauses to talk to the umpire at the net - I can't hear the conversation, but it concludes with the umpire telling him, politely, "no." Bolelli doesn't throw a fit, a racket or one of his chairs - he walks back, serves, and promptly concedes the next two points. Both players shake hands, and both shake hands with the umpire.
Neither the umpire nor Bolelli's coach will discuss the incident - they're both polite, but some conversations stay on the court. So there we have it - the ATP of 2008 is a polite place. Disagreements are quiet, and over before they start.
So I'm back in the media room typing this up, and I notice that it's time for Wawrinka's press conference. In the main interview room, cameras are set up, but they're for Nadal. Wawrinka will be in the small interview room. But the folks in the small interview room deny any knowledge of Wawrinka. Back in the main media room, the mystery is solved - the ever-anonymous Wawrinka has snuck into the media room itself, and is talking to a Swiss journalist. No-one else seems to know or care that he's there. Eventually, a fellow behind the desk announces over the loudspeaker that Wawrinka's here "if anyone's interested."
Well, I'm interested, and so is one other English language journalist. We pull up chairs next to the tennis player, and the other guy gets started. And, I kid you not, every question he asks is about - Roger.
After four questions about Federer's form, standing, rivalry with Nadal, etc, I think someone ought to ask Wawrinka questions about Wawrinka. So I remind him that at IW he said that his aim was to get to the top 20, and now he's in the top 10 - has he achieved all his goals? He smiles, and we talk a bit about his own game. What will it take to get to the next level? A good performance in a Grand Slam tournament. He was two sets up against Gonzalez at RG, and missed an opportunity there. Recently he's been working on getting to the net.
It's a fairly short conversation, maybe 7 or 8 minutes. Like other aspects of Wawrinka, for the most part he's completely controlled. On court, he's a top 10 player, coming through with a first round clean kill, 76 points to 65 (54%/46%). Off it, he's another face in the crowd, except to a few. And many of those who do recognize him seem like they're more interested in his "big brother," TMF. Stan Wawrinka is flying under the radar. I have a hunch he prefers it there.
Late Update: a good day all around for Wawrinka, who won in the doubles, 6-4 6-4. I gather his partner's going to the Olympics, too. Seems like a steady fellow.
