Wawrinka Speaks For 1st Time Since Ending Season

Stan Wawrinka is looking forward to returning to the ATP World Tour in 2018, but admitted to media at the Geneva Country Club that he is still working hard to overcome his knee cartilage injury, which required two surgeries.

“The last five months were the most difficult ones of my career,” Wawrinka said. “Even today I’m not 100 per cent yet physically and with my tennis. I’m working hard each day to improve. But at least it’s going in the right direction and I’m very satisfied with that.”

The 32-year-old advanced to the final at Roland Garros and the BNP Paribas Open, the semi-finals at the Australian Open and also won the title in Geneva, but did not play the rest of the season after losing his opener at Wimbledon due to his knee injury.

“The first surgery was arthroscopy to have a look at the problem and the second one was to reconstruct the cartilage,” Wawrinka said. “It was very difficult and tough, a big surgery. I needed crutches for eight weeks and lost a lot of muscles because of that.”

Nevertheless, Wawrinka still aims to play in the 2018 Australian Open, and has been working with longtime fitness trainer Pierre Paganini, who also trains Roger Federer, to prepare for the Australian summer. He is also seeking a new coach to work alongside Yannick Fattebert after Magnus Norman’s departure in October.

“I still have many weeks to work on what is still missing. Everything went well during the last few weeks, there were no delays,” Wawrinka said. “I was very lucky to have Pierre Paganini in my entourage. Without him I would have stopped. I really needed someone who knows me inside out and who knows what I need to be fit again.”