Forgive the Star Trek parlance, but ‘the line must be drawn here; this far, no further’ – that was the over-riding message of the day from Stan Wawrinka after his hard fought battle against Croatian talent, Borna Coric.
Wawrinka set Twitter alight as Sky Sports obviously alluded to the happenings of last week, in his match against Nick Kyrgios, where he stated with absolutely no ambiguity – Kyrgios had not apologized to him, or indeed all the other parties affected.
It is not just the case of a PR-crafted message on Facebook getting the job done, as Wawrinka stated. It is a matter of the consequences, and it all boiled down to a single sentence.
“That’s not just few words, but with one sentence he can touch a lot and hurt a lot of people.”
It transpires that outside of the PR driven apology on Kyrios’ Facebook page, there has not been a formal apology to Wawrinka, or to Donna Vekic, who was dragged into this along with Thanasi Kokkinakis.
All these players are trying to find that mindset for preparation for a Grand Slam, and Wawrinka admitted that things are not as simple, and as a result he had found it difficult to be in the moment on court. Against a young player like Coric, that is a dangerous place to be, as he showed in the first set, taking advantage of some questionable shot making to edge the first set.
Wawrinka said: “I was struggling today to be completely on the court and to fight the way I wanted and everything.
“You know, it’s been some tough day for some people, and it’s always difficult to completely focus on the tennis court.”
So how exactly does one turn off the turmoil that continues on and off the court? Wawrinka, has been hitting the doubles court with Leander Paes, who last week helped Andy Murray find his hard court legs in the Montreal Masters.
Wawrinka said: “I think for me it was good to play some doubles, to have fun on the tennis court with Leander. He’s a great guy and I really love to play with him.
“For me it’s a really important match today to win it. Not the way I play, not the way I am on the court, but the way I fight with little energy that I have. That’s the most important.”
Wawrinka will face Ivo Karlovic in the third round, and continues in the doubles with Paes, as they advanced to the quarter-finals after defeating eighth seeds Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock.
Topics: Atp World Tour, Borna Coric, Cincinnati Tennis, Leander Paes, Nick Kyrgios, Ros Satar, Sports, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis News, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Western and Southern Open
LATEST #TENNIS NEWS: @Leander HELPING @stanwawrinka FIND HIS FOCUS AFTER DIFFICULT WEEK – BY @rfsatar- http://t.co/eIpL6BCbbP #CincyTennis