On Thursday at the Rotterdam Open, Alex de Minaur beat 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka 6-4-, 6-2. In the previous round, Wawrinka’s age gap with Thijs Boogaard—23 years and three months—was in the second biggest in ATP and Grand Slam history. Wawrinka is playing his final season.
De Minaur has twice reached the Rotterdam final. He started much the sharper of the two, breaking Wawrinka in the third game and playing a strong fourth. At 15-0 in that game (0:26), de Minaur showed three of his biggest talents: changing the direction of the ball, his timing, and his foot speed. Wawrinka builds rhythm in a crosscourt backhand rally (not where many players want to be against the Swiss). De Minaur’s behind the baseline and Wawrinka tries to push him further back with a deep shot. But instead of surrounding more ground, de Minaur half volleys his own backhand down the line.
Wawrinka tries a crosscourt forehand but it’s not deep enough. Now De Minaur’s on the front foot. He anticipated Stan’s shot and can choose between a crosscourt reply or an inside-out forehand. Wawrinka has to back up and gets to De Minaur’s shot a little late, meaning he can only push a floaty forehand to the middle of the court.
De Minaur was on his way forward even before Wawrinka’s shot became apparent. He saw he’s gained ground and has a chance to volley. He races forward and Wawrinka’s nowhere near the ball as de Minaur finishes into the open space. De Minaur has developed this into another strength; he won five of six points at the net.
Wawrinka looked mildly frustrated early in the sixth game, seemingly making a point about the fluffed-up balls as he held one by its fuzz before hitting it down de Minaur’s between points. Wawrinka had said before the match it would be tough, “Especially in these conditions”. De Minaur had said, “I don’t think they are anyone’s favourite balls.”
Arthur Fils, also playing in Rotterdam, had said of the balls, “They are terrible. Really terrible. The ball is very bad. It is unbelievable.”
Daniil Medvedev, who lost on Monday, called the tournament supervisor to the court to say, “These tennis balls are round, or not round? Are they round? Head balls - are they round? Are you sure? Because I see it not round”.
The Rotterdam court was measured at 34.6, considered medium-slow, on the Court Pace Index (CPI).
Neither the balls or court stopped Wawrinka hitting a classic down the line backhand in the seventh game. Nor did they stop him breaking to love to level at 4-4.
De Minaur described the ball as “very dead”, saying it suits “the big hitters, the players that have a big revolution on the ball and are able to hit through that.”
Wawrinka might have benefited, but he let de Minaur break straight back. The Australian held serve to see out the set.
And the ball speed, or lack thereof, didn’t negate de Minaur’s timing. He hit an even better backhand down the line early in the second set. At 0-1, 15-0 (2:12), they’re into another backhand rally. De Minaur’s hitting with some pace but Wawrinka’s quite comfortable until de Minaur changes rhythm with a nice slice that pushes his opponent far wider. Stan hits back crosscourt and de Minaur has a chance for one of those exquisitely timed half volleyed groundstrokes.
It’s not even a fast shot but ends up a clean winner. Wawrinka has too much ground to cover and the ball stays so low that it bounces twice before the baseline. De Minaur had spotted the opportunity again and was on his way to the net in case Wawrinka made it.
Soon Wawrinka was making too many unforced errors. De Minaur broke in the third game to go 2-1 up.
After an extended rally in the second set’s fifth game, Wawrinka hit another unforced error, his shot lacking the spin to bring it back into court. The balls might’ve been too fluffy; Wawrinka might’ve been a tad slow getting to the ball.
At 1-5, 0-30, Wawrinka had won only 11 points in the second set and hit just one winner. He seemed to be trying to end the match in a hurry, one way or another, serving as the crowd were still clapping in an effort to motivate him. But he held serve and made De Minaur close it out. The world No. 8 made light work of it, finishing the match with another precise backhand winner down the line (3:23).
Wawrinka simply said, “Yeah.” Too good. De Minaur’s celebration was muted; so was the crowd’s reaction. De Minaur looked fresh after the one-hour-eight-minute match and capable of winning his first indoor title, even if the conditions aren’t typical of indoors.
Meanwhile, the 2015 champion is still capable of good tennis—Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech and pushed Hubert Hurkacz to three sets at the United Cup, and got a set off Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open—but two matches in two days looked too much here. Stan’s 40 and still firing, but not for much longer.
Top image from Tennis TV.