Wawrinka: ‘It's All Up To Me'

Third seed Stan Wawrinka, the defending Roland Garros champion, provided an interesting perspective on the mental side of the game after his win over Jeremy Chardy on Friday to set up a fourth-round encounter with Viktor Troicki.

“When I’m playing against Troicki or a player like today, it’s all up to me. A few years back it wasn’t just up to me,” said Wawrinka, who added that the difference between contenders and the rest of the field can be fleeting.

“The margin [between top players and the rest of the field] isn’t that huge. Between playing a five-set match and a three-setter that’s easier, sometimes there’s not that much of a difference, unlike what the score would seem to indicate,” said Wawrinka, who saw off Lukas Rosol in five sets in his opening match in Paris. “Rosol was playing really well. My legs were not so good. It perhaps wasn’t my best tennis. But in the end, I had to fight for these five sets. He played well.”

While Wawrinka can count himself among the men to beat at the second Grand Slam of the year, it wasn’t always so. He failed to clear the fourth round in his first eight trips to Roland Garros, then lost in the first round of the 2014 edition before going all the way last year.

“What makes a difference between me a few years back and me now, is that everything is much stronger,” Wawrinka said. “My level of play is much stronger. Physically things are much stronger. I’m much more confident.

“I have defeated all these guys over the past few years. So I can play anyone. If I just come along and I move physically and I feel the ball, I have the match under my control. Then of course I need to win it. But it’s already great to be able to think like that.”

The Swiss will hope to count on that sense of serenity as he sails into the second week. If the seeds hold, he will face Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals and Andy Murray in the semi-finals.

“When there are days when I’m not playing too well, I know that there is always a way out. It makes a huge difference when you’re not playing your best tennis but you can still win a five-set match in a Grand Slam tournament.

“Maybe the top-seeded players have this in common. There are days when we accept the play isn’t going to be as nice as usual. I’ve lost five-set matches in my life, too. There is no guarantee.

“But maybe we are a little bit calmer than the others.”