Tennis: Wawrinka dispatches Federer with brutal precision

Roger Federer says he tried everything out on court. Photo / AP

Switzerland led the sporting agenda this week for all the wrong reasons. So it is good to report on Stan Wawrinka's spectacular ball-striking against his compatriot Roger Federer, which provided a joyful counterpoint to the goings-on at Fifa.

Wawrinka had hardly been considered as a contender for this tournament, so turbulent had his spring been. It was not only the two-and-a-half-month stretch he spent without winning back-to-back matches.

There was also the personal trauma of his departure from the family home near Lausanne, which was followed by news of his imminent divorce from wife Ilham.

However, while off-court-problems might have affected Wawrinka's performance at the regular tour events, he has clocked on in Paris, driving through to the semifinals for the loss of just one set.

The 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 evisceration of Federer yesterday was bold in intent and brutal in execution. This was Wawrinka in the sort of form that carried him to the 2014 Australian Open, delivering such heavy ordnance off both wings that everyone left in the tournament will be afraid to face him.

The slow courts at Roland Garros this year work well for Wawrinka's blunderbuss groundstrokes. Like the very fastest bowlers in cricket, he takes the pitch - or, in this case, the court - out of the equation with the sheer speed he achieves through the air. One scudding cross-court forehand flew so fast across the bows of the onrushing Federer that the great man stumbled to his knees, his head down, as if praying for deliverance from the human cannonball on the other side of the net.

"I tried many things," an almost bemused Federer said afterwards. "Putting it up high, chipping it shorter, hitting through the wind. I was not going to leave the French Open without having tried everything out there. But Stan really didn't give me much, so it was a credit to him. He was red-hot."

Previous meetings between the two had done little to suggest this would be such a landslide. At least, not in Wawrinka's favour. He had lost 16 of 18 previous meetings, and while he clearly admired and respected Federer hugely, the world's favourite player casts a long shadow.

It was only last year, at the relatively advanced age of 28, that Wawrinka stepped up. The man known for playing the occasional blinder became a man capable of carving a path through entire fields.

A little later, in the final of the Masters 1000 event in Monte Carlo, he beat Federer for the first time in five years - a result that showed he was more than just a buddy; he was a threat.

That message seemed to get through to the Federer camp, judging by the way Mirka Federer sledged him from the players' box at the O2 Arena with a call of "crybaby". After that contretemps in the semifinal of the ATP World Tour Finals, the two men had to sort their differences out in the venue's makeshift gym.