The 2015 French Open, the terminus of the clay court season, is now over as Stan Wawrinka is the new king of clay court tennis with his surprise title at Roland Garros. Looking back at the last couple of months there are some clear winners and losers on the men’s tours. In reflecting on the results from Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid, Paris, and the other smaller tournaments here’s a look at the new Top Ten on tour and who won and lost during the clay court season.

1. Novak Djokovic – Loser

Djokovic, although he skipped Madrid, did win both Monte Carlo and Rome. That being the case, he stood to go undefeated during the clay court season entering the French Open. That an undefeated clay court season appeared imminent especially seemed to be the case given that Rafael Nadal was playing well below his normal level.

However Djokovic lost the final to Wawrinka and in doing so the World No. 1 missed an amazing opportunity to complete his career Grand Slam. Even with the Rome and Monte Carlo titles, Djokovic has to be considered a loser following the 2015 clay court season as nothing but a French Open title would have made the Serb’s campaign on the dirt a successful one.

2. Roger Federer – Loser

Roger Federer will remain the World No. 2 on Monday when the rankings update. However popular opinion regarding the Swiss Maestro‘s ability to compete on tour, at the highest level, will probably dive a bit after tennis pundits and fans reflect on the last couple of months.

Federer didn’t have much in Monte Carlo as he fell in the round of sixteen to Gael Monfils. In Istanbul, the World No. 2 claimed a title however the event was merely a part of the 250-series on tour and winning the tournament didn’t prove much. Then, in Madrid, Fed practically no-showed the tournament as he lost an opening coin-toss to Nick Kyrgios.

The only event that Federer lived up to expectations in was Rome, a tournament where he lost to Djokovic in the final. But even though Federer beat Wawrinka in Rome he did not back up the win against the same opponent in Paris. In fact Federer had the cushiest of draws in Paris over the last two weeks and still failed to make the semifinals.

Following the French Open and the clay court season, the former World No. 1 looks as though he might be a little easier to pick off during the upcoming grass court season. Fair to say, no one in the Top 20 will dread seeing Fed’s name in an upcoming match.

3. Andy Murray – Winner

Murray missed Monte Carlo a couple months back however he was very active on tour thereafter.

For starters, the Scot claimed his very first clay court title ever in Munich through Roberto Bautista Agut and Philipp Kohlschreiber.

More impressively, Murray then won Madrid the very next week to add another Masters Series title to his resume. Despite having entered the Madrid draw on limited rest Murray wrecked three Top Tenners in straight sets from the quarters onward, namely Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, and Rafael Nadal.
While the Scot withdrew from Rome’s third round, it was an understandable move as he was in his third event in three weeks.

Murray, during the 2015 clay court season, proved himself to be a tough out in Paris once again as he extended Djokovic to five sets in the semifinals. But despite the loss the World No. 3 had his career best clay court season with two titles added to his French Open semifinal appearance.

The Scot, in the months ahead, appears poised to do some damage on his best surfaces, those being grass and cement.

4. Stan Wawrinka – Winner

Stan Wawrinka is the biggest winner following the clay court season. The Swiss may have failed to defend his title in Monte Carlo however he’s undoubtedly on top of the world following his French Open victory. Furthermore, with the second Grand Slam title, Wawrinka has emerged as a more significant player in his generation than he was before the 2015 clay court season.

Wawrinka, after falling in the first round of the 2014 French Open, turned a net gain of 1990 ranking points in Paris. That has shot him up the Top Ten and he has to be the happiest tennis player in the world at the moment.

5. Kei Nishikori – Loser

Nishikori’s clay court season has to be given a minimal fail. Japan’s top player enjoyed success at ATP Barcelona, a 500-series event, however otherwise Nishikori did not see a final- let alone win one.

His result in Roland Garros has to be considered a disappointment as he fell in the quarters to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. In the broader picture, Nishikori also failed to beat anyone more proven than David Ferrer during the clay court events.

The current World No. 5 did improve drastically on his 2014 French Open result. However he had a draw at Roland Garros that probably should have taken him to the semifinals. That is especially true given that he had a walkover win in Paris in the third round, something that should have kept him fresh for the later rounds.

With the title in Barca and with the French Open improvement, there are things for Nishikori to feel positive about. However a little bit more should have been achieved and, for that reason, he’s a clay court season loser.

6. Tomas Berdych – Loser

Berdych’s clay court season has to be considered a failure largely because of his fourth round exit in Roland Garros. Berdych was opposite to Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray in the Paris draw – about all he could have realistically hoped for.

Therefore losing to Tsonga in the fourth round had to be stinging for the Czech No. 1, a player who could have hoped to have been the finalist on the weak half of the draw at the 2015 French Open. With no titles from the last couple of months, it’s hard to see Berdych taking any consolation in his runnerup finish from Monaco.

7. David Ferrer – Loser

Ferrer is still consisently putting big dents into big tournaments. Accordingly, he made the quarterfinals or semifinals of every clay court event that he entered during the clay court season.

However time is ticking for the 33-year old and he’s still missing some hardware. An adept clay courter, Ferrer saw another season come and go without any titles added to his trophy case. For that reason, he has to be considered a loser on the 2015 clay court season.

8. Milos Raonic – Loser

Raonic has to be considered one of the biggest losers on the 2015 clay court season. Most noteably the Canadian had to miss Roland Garros outright with foot surgery, a circumstance that sent him on a small ranking slide. However, even with the events that he played, there is no result that did anything to prove that he’s a force to be reckoned with on clay.

The biggest scalp that Raonic claimed during the clay court season was that of Tommy Robredo’s, a player who has lost some punch so far in 2015. Accordingly, the 2015 season did nothing to bolster Roanic’s reputation, in fact it further highlighted that his body might not be built for the rigors of ATP tennis.

9. Marin Cilic – Loser

Cilic is clinging on to a spot in the Top Ten on tour largely due to one result, his victory from Flushing Meadows last season. Without that, Cilic would not be in the upper echelon of ATP tennis and a ranking slide appears to be in the cards at summer’s end.

Cilic entered a ton of events during the 2015 clay court season but, in doing so, all he did was highlight how off his game is right now. Losses to Juan Monaco, Victor Estrella Burgos, Fernando Verdasco, Guillermo Garcia Lopez, and Santiago Giraldo suggest that Cilic’s true playing level is outside of the Top 30 at present.

The Croat appears to be a high seed that no one will be scared to face in Wimbledon, Canada, Cincinnati, and Flushing Meadows.

10. Rafael Nadal – Loser

The 2015 clay court season revealed Nadal’s mortality. Questions regarding the Spaniard’s ability to challenge for the World No. 1 ranking have to be raised now that he is 29-years old and fading. Losses in all five clay court events that he entered proved that Nadal is not presently the player that he used to be as he’s just fallen to the number 10 spot on the ATP rankings.

Stan Wawrinka, in what was an impressive upset, defeated Novak Djokovic on Sunday in the final of the 2015 French Open. The result is noteable in that it prevents Djokovic from claiming a career Grand Slam, an achievement that is considered one trademark of an all-time great player.

However one question that could be visited following the 2015 French Open doesn’t have to do with Djokovic at all: where does Wawrinka, a two-time Grand Slam champion, now fit among the all-time great players?

In answering the question, it has to be stated that Wawrinka’s career is still a work in progress. But I do wonder if his recent success in Grand Slams (he’s won two of the last six) might actually push the 30-year old closer to retirement. Wawrinka appears to be at his peak but if he feels as though he has self-actualized that might set the stage for calling his career a completed one.

Putting that speculation aside, let’s look at what Wawrinka has accomplished in his career in three important categories:

Highest rank to date: World No. 3 (January 2014)
Grand Slam titles: 2 (2014 Australian Open, 2015 French Open)
ATP Titles (including 2 Slams): 10 (only one Masters Series)

Neither Wawrinka’s highest ranking nor his ATP title count merit discussing the Swiss as worthy of inclusion on a SHORT list of all-time great players.
When comparing Wawrinka to the best ever, one has to admit that we’re looking at a much longer list of players than just a Top 10. Instead of dealing with gargantuan tennis names like Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, and John McEnroe we’re assessing Wawrinka against the lesser bright lights that have played on the ATP Tour.

From this point of view what’s definitely noteworthy with Wawrinka is the two majors. Noteably there have been numerous former World No. 1s that did not win two Grand Slam finals despite their best efforts.

Marcelo Rios, the Chilean who spent six weeks as the World No. 1 in 1998, is a case in point. Rios holds the unflattering distinction of being the only player in the history of the ATP rankings (they started in August 1973) to both hold top spot on tour and to have never won a Grand Slam singles title.

In Rios’ defence it probably should be pointed out that he lost to Petr Korda in the 1998 Australian Open final, a player who tested positive for Nandrolone a short time after winning the Aussie. However even if you were to vacate Korda’s result, that would still only give Rios one major title.

Should Wawrinka be considered better than Rios? What about other players who were ranked No. 1 for only a short time?

Carlos Moya, for example, spent a couple weeks ranked No. 1 during his career and, unlike Rios, he won a Grand Slam title (1998 French Open). However he only won the one title, having fallen in the final of the 1997 Aussie in his other major final appearance.

Other former World No. 1s with only one Grand Slam title include, comprehensively, the following:

Andy Roddick
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Thomas Muster

Wawrinka, though he’s never been ranked higher than third, has now won more majors than a handful of players that have been top ranked. That begs a question that I’ve pondered a few times before.

When assessing where a player fits on the all-time greats list, should one consider Grand Slam singles titles or highest ranking achieved (with some further consideration on how long the highest ranking was held for)?

If you go by the latter then you emphasize and are biased toward isolated results, albeit the ones in the toughest tournaments. If you go by the former you emphasize an entire year-long war instead of individual battles.

It’s my opinion that the latter is more important because winning a war is more impressive than winning a battle in my view.

There are plenty of players, like Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro for examples, that can win a Grand Slam tournament but only at great cost. Both of those players won the US Open, in 2009 and 2015 respectively, only to see costly injuries follow shortly thereafter. It’s my view that the best tennis players are those that can show up for every battle in the war with something in the tank afterwards.

Furthermore there are players who win majors that seemingly disappear a short time later. Thomas Johansson was like that in 2002. The Swede won the Australian Open that year and then lost in every single tournament, big or small, until ATP Stockholm 2004.

It seems that some players, perhaps satisfied with themselves, fade after a big win instead of chasing the World No. 1 ranking; and, to be honest, I think Wawrinka was a little like this in the first months of 2014.

After winning the Aussie last season, Wawrinka went on a bit of a hiatus. That hiatus that saw him lose in the rounds of sixteen in both Indian Wells and Miami to both Alexandr Dolgopolov and Kevin Anderson respectively. Arguably, it’s those results that prevented Stan from perhaps challenging for a higher ranking than what he achieved.

But whether Wawrinka will now fade following his French Open title or improve upon his career best ranking in the months ahead remains to be seen. However at this point I think the fair place to put Wawrinka on the all-time list is well down it.

He’s clearly better in my view than several of the non-World No. 1s that have only won one major, players like Michael Stich, Richard Krajicek, and Gaston Gaudio. However Wawrinka is still a cut below the very upper eschelon of tennis greats, players like Federer, Sampras, Nadal, Borg, Djokovic, and others.

At this point I think Wawrinka, with the second Grand Slam title, clearly makes the Top 50 of any list of greatest tennis players of the Open Era that can be taken seriously. More specifically, I think he belongs in the 35th to 45th range and he still has some time to improve on that if he’s still motivated following his achievement.

In conclusion, Wawrinka does not belong in the same category as players like Federer or Nadal? But if someone argued that the new French Open champion is as talented as the likes of Michael Chang, Goran Ivanesevic, Vitas Gerulaitis, and Pat Cash then it would seem to be a defendable position.

Stan Wawrinka has been on a role knocking out one after the other of the power tennis Holy Trinity consisting of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and now Novak Djokovic. Yes, some call them the Power 3 but these guys play on a whole other level, and the only person who been consistently bringing them down to earth is the Swiss Wawrinka who seems as surprised with winning the 2015 French Open title as Djokovic. He took down the worlds number one ranked tennis player in four sets, one in which he was down until he rallied back, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

This makes his second Grand Slam win, but more importantly stopped the seemingly unstoppable Serbian tennis star from taking home his first Roland Garros title. It truly seemed like nothing could stop Djokovic’s momentum as he’s knocked out everyone in his path, but Wawrinka has been doing exactly the same thing, but he doesn’t garner as much press so it’s not as noticeable to the average person. Until now.

The Swiss was warmly congratulated at the handshake by Djokovic before climbing into the stands to celebrate with his coach, Magnus Norman – the runner-up at Roland Garros in 2000 – and his family. He then returned to the court to embrace Djokovic once more.

Three-time Roland Garros champion Gustavo Kuerten, who beat Norman in the 2000 final, presented La Coupe des Mousquetaires to Wawrinka. There was a special and prolonged ovation for three-time runner-up Djokovic, who was moved to tears by the reception he received on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Wawrinka was rewarded for playing lights-out tennis for much of the three-hour, 12-minute contest. He struck 59 winners, almost twice as many as Djokovic, and never let his head drop as the Serb relentlessly fended off break points. After rallying from 0/40 down in the eighth game of the fourth set – having already been a break down – Wawrinka red-lined a backhand winner to break Djokovic and served out the contest, saving break point before finishing with another lethal backhand.

Wawrinka will return to the Top 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday after joining Roger Federer (2009) as the only Swiss champions at the clay-court Grand Slam. The Lausanne native added to the Australian Open crown he won in January 2014 (d. Nadal), making him just the sixth active player to win multiple major titles.

The 30-year-old Wawrinka, who won the boys’ singles title in Paris in 2003 (d. Baker), is the first former junior champion to lift the men’s singles trophy since Mats Wilander in 1988.

Wawrinka had beaten 17-time major champion and good friend Federer in the quarter-finals before denying home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semi-finals. At 30 years and 71 days, he is the third oldest first-time Roland Garros champion in the Open Era.

World No. 1 Djokovic was bidding to become the eighth man in history to complete the career Grand Slam. It is the third time that the Belgrade native has finished runner-up in Paris, having fallen to Rafael Nadal in the 2012 and 2014 finals.

The Serb had stunned nine-time Roland Garros champion Nadal in straight sets in the quarter-finals before edging Andy Murray in a five-set semi-final that spanned two days.

Djokovic was looking to win his ninth Grand Slam championship, having opened the 2015 season by triumphing at the Australian Open (d. Murray). The right-hander suffered just his third defeat of the season and saw his 28-match winning streak come to an end; his last defeat had come against Federer in the Dubai final.

Having fallen to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the first round last year, Wawrinka is the first player to return the following year and lift the trophy at the same Grand Slam championship since Federer won at 2003 Wimbledon. One year earlier, the Swiss had fallen in his opener to Mario Ancic at the All England Club.

Wawrinka is also the first player to defeat the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds en route to the Roland Garros title since Sergi Bruguera in 1993. Bruguera defeated No. 1 Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals and No. 2 Jim Courier in the final.