Stan Wawrinka is slowly and steadily starting to make a comeback to the top. The Swiss took a long time off the tennis Calendar after the knee injury.
After the 2017 Wimbledon, there were many speculations that Stan has a knee injury and Wawrinka confirmed the same by announcing that he will take some time off the court for healing. In the first week of August 2017, he underwent surgery to recover from the damaged knee. He missed the remaining 2017 season because if the surgery.
In 2018, the 3-times grand slam made a comeback at the Australian Open. He lost in the second round in Melbourne. The 33-year-old reached the semifinals at the Sofia Open. But the Swiss was forced to retire from Open 13 in the first round due to his knee injury.
Wawrinka was out of the season for almost three months. He returned to the tour at the Italian Open but lost the first round of the tournament. In 2018 Roland Garros, he was thrashed in the first round which made his ranking drop from no. 30 to no. 263 in the world.
Stan played quite an ordinary tennis for the rest of the 2018 season. He lost in the first round of Washington Open. At the Rogers Cup, he was quite impressive in the first round beating Nick Kyrgios but lost in the third round against the eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
Stan played some really quality tennis at the Cincinnati Open reaching the quarterfinals. He also reached the third round at the US Open but couldn't pass through Milos Raonic to reach the fourth round.
This year, Wawrinka continued to make a comeback on the tour. He looked solid at the Qatar Open reaching the quarterfinals of the tournament. The 2014 Australian Open champion was again defeated by Milos Raonic, in a second straight grand slam match against the Canadian.
Stan made a statement by reaching the finals of the Rotterdam Open. This was his first tournament finals in over 20 months. He was again impressive at the Mexican Open reaching the last 8. He will be playing the round of 64 against Marton Fucsovics at the Indian Wells Masters.
Wawrinka has started to go long in the tournaments again. He is reaching the final stages of the tournament and going up in the ATP leaderboards. Stan is known for his mental strength. He is also considered to be in the ‘big 5’ with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray.
He is slowly trying to come back in the top 50 rankings. His current ranking is no. 68 in the world. With the kind of talent and passion for the game, he can't be ignored in any tournament and will always be considered as a competitor to win a title