Belinda Bencic summed it up best at United Cup, when she was asked if former champion Stan Wawrinka deserved an Australian Open wild card.
“It’s not even a question,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re waiting for.”
True that.
There are still three unclaimed men’s singles wild cards for Melbourne, and news should break soon that Wawrinka is in. Perhaps the tournament is enjoying the attention and speculation about this wild card, so why not wait a bit so when the news hits it will really break hard?
Hard to imagine that a former champion – a three-time major champion in total – would be left off the list, even if he isn’t exactly in the most scintillating form at the age of 40. Wawrinka, meantime, is happy to be playing at United Cup, and he’ll join his teammates in the semifinals against either Belgium or the Czechs on Saturday. He’s already scored a big three-set win, over Arthur Rinderknech, at United Cup, and nearly another, against Flavio Cobolli (he list in a third-set breaker).
Clearly, Wawrninka ranked 156, is deserving.
“I’ve been talking to Craig [Tiley, tournament director] in December before coming here. They’ve been updating me a bit with everything,” he said. “Again, like I said already yesterday or two days ago, I’m super happy if I get one. I want to play one more time. Of course, it’s my last year. Amazing memories from there, but I’m so grateful I received one last year.”
156th-ranked Wawrinka knows that he’ll have to rely on tournament organizers for much of the season for wild cards, unless he can rack up a few big performances and get back inside the Top 100.
“I had one job to do if I wanted to play one more time was to be in the top 100, and I’m not,” he said.
“I’m happy where I am right now, and I’m not worried too much about what’s going to happen in Melbourne.”
