Even the greats become so racked with nerves that the tension barely subsides until long after the last ball is struck.
Stan Wawrinka remembers well the feeling ahead of his first Grand Slam final at Melbourne Park 12 years ago.
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There were similar anxious moments that gripped him before his second in Paris a year later and in 2016, he was so overcome with emotion ahead of the decider at Flushing Meadows that he wept while talking with his coach Magnus Norman in the locker room.
In all three instances, the most seminal matches of his career, the Swiss kept his emotions in check to prevail over the reigning world No.1 – first Rafael Nadal, then Novak Djokovic twice.
“When we start talking five minutes before the match, last few things with Magnus, I start to cry. I was completely shaking,” Wawrinka said after his triumph in New York.
“But the only thing I was convinced with myself was that my game was there. Physically I was there. My game was there. Just put the fight on the court and you will have a chance to win.”
Already assured of his greatness in the modern game, the stakes have shifted in Wawrinka’s final Australian Open campaign nine-and-a-half years since he added that US Open to his tally.
A first Melbourne Park victory in five years on Monday over Serbian Laslo Djere made him the first player aged 40 or over to win a men’s singles match at a major since Ivo Karlovic in 2020.
Even as the oldest wildcard at a Grand Slam in the Open era and with nothing left to prove, the nerves never dissipated before or during his match before a heaving crowd at Kia Arena.
“Yeah, almost all match,” he grinned. “No, of course, I'm always nervous. That's always been positive for me. That means I really care. That means I really want to do well. I'm really pushing myself.
“That's when you need to be really disciplined with yourself, with your brain, with what you have to do during the match. I think those matches also a bit longer in five sets always help me to relax, to be a bit more focused, to move a bit better. That was the case today. I think I start playing better second, third and fourth sets.”
His vanquished opponent, Djere, expected the crowd to play its part in helping their man across the line. While it was not the Wawrinka of old he faced, the Serbian was nonetheless impressed.
“I mean, he's one of the greats of the sport,” Djere said of Wawrinka.
“Obviously, his level dropped from where it was 10 years ago, but, I mean, that's expected and that's normal.
“He's still able to play on a high level. I mean, he's doing good, I think. Like, his tennis is still good.”
A successful United Cup campaign in which Wawrinka and Belinda Bencic guided Switzerland to the final against an ultimately triumphant Poland was an ideal warm-up to his 75th Grand Slam start.
High-level competition back-to-back in Perth and Sydney – some matches beyond the three-hour mark – gave the former No.3 a much-needed injection of confidence.
French qualifier Arthur Gea, a player almost two decades younger than Wawrinka, now stands between the Swiss and a first third-round appearance at a Slam since 2023.
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There will be at least one more chance for Wawrinka to channel those nerves and absorb the energy of a Melbourne Park crowd again.
Still, Wawrinka puts that fight on the court to give himself a chance to win.
“I wish it would feel the same, the same power and everything … I don't try to feel the same as 10 years or more ago,” he grinned
“I’ve always been honest with myself, knowing where I am, what's my ability, what I can do, what I can still achieve, the way I can still play. I try to use that on court every matches.
“I know I'm not as good as I was before. I know I'm not physical and tennis-wise as I was before. That's normal. I'm getting old.
“But I'm still happy with what I'm doing, always trying to push my own limit, always trying to be better.”