No career Slam for Nole as super Stan wins second major

It was a break and set point, of course, but the pivotal chance came after three Djokovic holds in which he was forced to save a break point.

But Wawrinka’s focus was as good as his forehand today, and he kept pressuring Djokovic when returning serve.

Finally, after a long rally, Wawrinka ended Djokovic’s run of service holds, leveled the final at one set apiece, and made observers believe that he could, if he kept playing at such an extraordinarily high level, win it all.

We’ve seen Wawrinka play imperious tennis before, against Djokovic at multiple majors, against Rafael Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open final, and against Roger Federer just a few days ago.

Wawrinka generated pace from every part of the red-clay court, both with his forehand and backhand, and make Djokovic play almost exclusively defensive points.

(On that chance, Djokovic hit an inside-out forehand wide, which seems counterintuitive at a surely nervous moment for Wawrinka.

But Stan was only going to be beaten with bold play on this day.) Wawrinka has now was two Grand Slam singles titles, and he’s beaten Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic the latter twice en route to those chalices.

Plus, Djokovic was 17-3 against Wawrinka coming into this match, despite going the five-set distance in their past four Grand Slam encounters.

The most encouraging thing Djokovic fans can take away from today’s result is that the 28-year-old seemed to recognize that almost nothing he did would have been enough today; Wawrinka was just that good.