LONDON: A shock loss for second seed Stan Wawrinka at the Aegon Championships might be a blessing in disguise as his body struggles to adapt to the grass.
The French Open finalist crashed out in the first round for the second year in a row. This time it was at the hands of Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, who prevailed 7-6(4), 7-5. The grass has been a longstanding nemesis of the Swiss player, who has played only one out of his 28 ATP finals on the surface. Facing the formidable Lopez on center court, Wawrinka failed to find a solution to crack his opponents serve.
“When you play Feli on grass, you know that it’s going to be a tough match anyway. He’s playing with confidence from last week, making the final.” Wawrinka said during his press conference.
“Today was a tough match. Really sad to have lost it. I think in general for the first match on grass, the game wasn’t that bad.”
Entering the ground on Tuesday morning, Wawrinka was spotted wearing a bandage on his left knee for support. During the match it was not worn, potentially a tactic to not make Lopez aware of the problem. Still the Swiss was spotted performing exercises on his knee during some of the changeovers.
“Since two days (ago) I had some knee pain because of the change of the surface. When you arrive on grass, you need to be careful. I need to be careful to make sure it doesn’t bother me too long.” He explained in a calm tone.
The issue didn’t appear to be too troublesome for the three-time grand slam champion, who was moving freely around the court. Still, it is something not to take lightly. Illustrated by Rafael Nadal’s high-profile knee problems on the grass.
Eartlier this year, a knee injury hampered Wawrinka’s offensive on the tour and forced him to withdraw from the Rotterdam Open. He he will be hoping the lightening doesn’t strike twice at Wimbledon, but admits that there is a chance of it happening. However small it may be.
“We never know. At my age and after many years on the tour, you always need to be careful when you have a problem in your body.” The US Open champion said.
“But again, when you change surface like that from clay, after a long season on clay, you arrive on the grass, for sure we all going to have some small problem.’
“The most important is to take care of it, to make sure that it doesn’t stay too long.”
Vowing to return to the practice courts in order to improve his game, Wawrinka currently has no plans to accept a wild card into a tournament next week. He now faces a race against time to ensure his knee is fully fit for SW19 or risk missing his first major tournament since 2005.
“I have now almost two weeks on the grass, more than the five days I have already done, so I’m going to spend a lot of time on the practice court to be ready for the next one.” Wawrinka pledged.
At third in the world, Wawrinka will be bidding to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in his career.