"I believe I can beat any player" - Stan Wawrinka confident results will follow after training 'hard as ever' for 2023 season
Stan Wawrinka is feeling quite positive about his game as he continues his bid to give himself chances of winning titles again and climb back up to the high rankings places. The three-time Grand Slam champion threw down the gauntlet by expressing his belief that he can still beat anyone on tour.
Wawrinka has already made two quarterfinals in only his first three tournaments of the 2023 season, reaching the last-eight in back-to-back tournaments in Rotterdam and Marseille. Earlier, he also won a thriller in a deciding tie at the Davis Cup to send Switzerland into the world group stage.
Shedding light on his level of tennis in a recent chat on the ATP Tennis Radio Podcast, the Swiss great was quite confident about the same. He admitted that there is still a long way to go in the 2023 season and it will be important for him to be consistent week in and week out.
"My game is high, when I enter the court I believe I can beat any player in front of me," Stan Wawrinka stated. "Now I have to do it and I have to do it in repetition in the same week."
"But the year is long and I’m always looking for the full year, to the big picture, controlling what I can control and the matches and results will come," he added.
One of the things in his control is the way he trains and the experienced campaigner revealed that he worked as hard as ever in the pre-season, while also being careful not to overdo things. Wawrinka said that he is pushing himself to the limit in training and now hopes for a positive outcome over a longer period of time.
"As hard as ever and in a different way too," Wawrinka said on his preparations for the season. "With age, with the injury, and everything makes it a bit more difficult. But I've been pushing myself at the maximum I can and hopefully the results will come."
"The rankings follow your results" - Stan Wawrinka on climbing back up the ATP rankings chart
While Stan Wawrinka feels he is still far away from where he wants to be in the ATP rankings, he is not too worried about the same. The Swiss star is focused on producing strong results on a consistent basis and training well in between.
After starting the season at No. 148 in the ATP rankings, Wawrinka returned to the Top-100 on Monday for the first time since January 2022, courtesy of his recent results at the ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam and the Open 13 Provence in Marseille.
"Still far away from where I want to be. The rankings follow your results. For me, most important is the way I'm playing, I'm practicing, the way I'm going into tournaments," Wawrinka said on the same.
The 37-year-old is not playing in any of the three tournaments on tour this week, in Dubai, Acapulco, and Santiago, respectively. His next tournament will thus be the Indian Wells Masters, which begins next week.