All top-level athletes are certainly ambitious and adventurous to some extent; otherwise, they would not have become top-level athletes and would not have fought for victory in every match. Of course, such a rivalry is also known to Federer and Wawrinka, and this was evident during their first meeting on the tennis court when they held a real tennis battle and offered the audience a great spectacle.
After the first match between these two great tennis players took place in 2005, they found themselves together in the Swiss Olympic team and were preparing for the doubles competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where their friendship and sharing of their then small experience began. The Olympics ended successfully, and with the victory of the young tennis players, their friendship and their entire careers were still at an early stage.
The next joint big victory in the doubles tournament came in 2014 in the Davis Cup. In this case, we are talking about a more difficult result to achieve because in tournaments like the Davis Cup, in addition to individual results, the results of individual players in both the men’s and women’s categories are counted, and doubles competitions are also counted, and the overall results are added up and this is how the winning country is determined.
Winning as a country is a difficult task because it requires two top-level players, both men’s and women’s, to achieve the highest goals. This is exactly the kind of successful tournament the Swiss tennis players had at the 2014 Davis Cup.
The most important tournaments in top-level tennis are the four Grand Slam tournaments.
As you know, only two Swiss players have excelled at the highest level in recent years, and the most notable was, of course, tennis legend Federer, who, along with Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Serb Novak Djokovic, dominated the tennis elite worldwide for almost two decades.
As for the direct confrontations between Federer and Wawrinka, Roger has won 23 of the 26 meetings between them.
The friendly relationship between Federer and Wawrinka has always been felt, with their frequent joint training sessions, positive comments about each other in interviews, joint master classes, and many other factors. It is also worth noting the support for each other during injuries when they constantly supported each other, visited each other in the hospital, and even helped with the rehabilitation process.
This great friendship had a very positive impact on Swiss tennis as a whole. Tennis became very popular in the country, and winning Grand Slam tournaments became the goal of many young people, as they had living examples of people playing tennis at the highest level.
As you know, when great tennis players end their careers, an event is held in their honor, and their colleagues and famous athletes give speeches in honor of the retired athlete. At Federer’s farewell party, it was once again evident how great a friendship he and Wawrinka had with each other.
Stan’s most emotional words were when he referred to Roger as a big brother and spoke about his role in his career development; Roger always supported and motivated him as a friend and as a rival, ultimately creating a great career for both himself and Wawrinka.
Wawrinka concluded his speech by saying that tennis will never be the same again as it was during Federer’s active career.
