Australian Open 2014 men's singles final preview: Nadal the overwhelming favourite

Rafael Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka are all set to square off in the Australian Open final

After Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka made it to the final of the Australian Open, defying all odds, some tennis fans were expecting the same sort of resistance from his compatriot Roger Federer, dreaming about the possibility of an all-Swiss final on Sunday. Stan, having done all the hard work, would also have personally preferred his Davis Cup doubles partner in the final instead of Rafael Nadal, against whom he shares the worst track record one can possibly imagine. However as fate would have it, the irrepressible Spaniard, shrugging off the blisters on his palm, put up a brave show to crush Federer and book a final showdown against the reigning Chennai Open champion.

So does that mean that Nadal equalling Pete Sampras in terms of number of Grand Slams is inevitable? Or can ‘Stan the Man’ in fact do the unthinkable? Any layman, let alone a tennis expert, would be able to answer these two questions, should he get to see the head-to-head record between the two. It looks so easy, doesn’t it? How can anyone even think of betting on someone who hasn’t even taken a set off his opponent in any of the 12 matches played against him?

With the odds stacked entirely against him, does Stan stand a chance at all in his first ever Grand Slam final of pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the game?

First of all, if past records are anything to go by, Wawrinka would not have made it to the final at all, having had to meet Novak Djokovic in the quarters. Prior to that match, the Serb had an overwhelming 14-match winning streak against the eighth-seeded Swiss. It took almost eight years for Wawrinka to turn the tables and inflict what would only be his second victory over the World No. 2 Serb. So it needs to be remembered that there is always a ‘first’ to everything. Though the Swiss has never been a challenging opponent for the relentless southpaw till date, there is always a chance that he would finally be able to reverse the trend just as he did against Djokovic.

And Wawrinka certainly has the right attitude for it, as can be seen from the following tattooed expression on his left forearm:

‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’

Instead of getting bogged down by his repeated failures against Djokovic, Wawrinka was able to smile at them and move on. From being an underdog for very long, he has managed to get himself to a position where he has at least a 50 percent chance of upsetting the Serb. After having come close to beating him on a couple of occasions last year, he was at last able to solve the Serbian mystery which had been bothering him for quite a while. In fact, what Nadal has been doing all these years is mainly because of his fighting spirit, and that kind of spirit could well be the deciding factor in Stan’s career too.