Stan Wawrinka outlasts, outhits Andy Murray in 5-set French Open semi

In Paris, labor triumphed over conservatism as Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 French Open champion, wore down Great Britain’s greatest tennis player, Andy Murray over the course of five sets and nearly five hours. The result of this winner-laden, all-court showcase of aggression from two of the game’s best baseliners means that Wawrinka will play for his fourth Grand Slam singles title against either nine-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal, or rising clay-court star Dominic Thiem.

It is hard to distill a match of this length, with so many brilliantly brutal points, into just a few hundred words. But in an effort to do so, I will posit that while Murray won the battles, Wawrinka won the war.

The first set of this 6-7 (6), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-1 phone number of a match went to Murray, despite Wawrinka holding a 5-3 advantage. The third set went Murray’s way after the world No. 1 trailed it 3-0, and then fell behind again at 4-2. Wawrinka has built a reputation as a big-match player—all three of his Grand Slam final victories have come against Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal—but early on, it was Murray who played the biggest points better.

Still, it was clear that Wawrinka was a) nonetheless playing well, and b) wasn’t about to relent. He opened the pivotal fourth-set tiebreaker with a 100 m.p.h. forehand explosion. In the fifth set he struck a 96 m.p.h. forehand—for a winner—and smacked a 128 m.p.h. first-serve ace. Exit velocity is de rigueur in baseball, but the stat has a place in tennis, particularly when its sultan of swat, Wawrinka, is hitting the ball like he did today.

Wawrinka’s display was even more impressive considering Murray’s level of execution and instinct. Sure, his celebrated counterpunching duties were called upon at various instances of this semifinal, and in doing so he elicited many of the Swiss’ 77 unforced errors. Murray struck less than half of his opponent’s winner count (36 to 87), but he was opportunistic, knowing that once a point settled onto Wawrinka’s racquet, it could be over. The combination made for an exhilarating four hours and 36 minutes of tennis, with a-sky-high degree of quality sustained through four sets.

The fourth set ultimately decided this match, and both men stated their cases with aplomb. Each held serve six times, and zero break points were given. After all the needle-threating passing shots, lobs struck with a golfer’s level of accuracy and authoritative groundstrokes, a tiebreaker was required to settle things.

While Murray had his moments in the deciding session, he was always playing from behind—down 0-2, he rallied made the score 2-2; down 2-4 after a drop shot carved too fine, he reached 3-4. But once Wawrinka earned three set points as the clock struck 4:00, time began to run out on Murray. Wawrinka claimed the set to level the match, then broke Murray twice to lead the fifth set, 3-0.

With Murray’s magic ability to pull a set out of a deficit, a trick that had already worked twice on Friday, I viewed Wawrinka’s 3-0 service game as crucial. As expected, Murray made his push, winning the game’s first two points. But Wawrinka won the next four to take a 4-0 lead, and then broke Murray again for 5-0.

Murray’s fight at this stage was admirable—it sounds crazy to say that about a Grand Slam semifinal, but so many other players have waved the white flag—and he prevented another 6-0 set from appearing in the record books with a break. (There have been an abnormally high amount during the second week of this major.)

But just like after the third set, Wawrinka’s tactics never changed, and his shots never lost their intensity. In the first point of the 5-1 game, with Murray scampering yards behind the baseline to retrieve Wawrinka’s heavy projectiles, a drop shot seemed like a potentially effective change of pace. Not for Wawrinka, who continued to bludgeon ball after ball—and was rewarded for it. In the last point of the game, and the match, he uncorked a searing backhand winner down the line.

Hit and commit: Wawrinka has belted his way into the game’s uppermost echelon with this singular focus over the past five years. Don’t expect anything different in Sunday’s final.

Watch encore coverage of the men's semifinals today on Tennis Channel: