It had to be the shorts.
ATPWorldTour.com reported that the first thing newly crowned French Open champion Stan Wawrinka wanted to address was his plaid shorts that he wore along the way to his second Grand Slam title.
Stan Wawrinka's wife accuses him of using their separation as an excuse for his poor play
"It will be in the museum of Roland Garros," Wawrinka joked as he placed a pair on the interview room table, according to ATPWorldTour.com. "You can see my shorts every day if you want.
"Everybody talks about these shorts since I put them on. I quite like (them). Apparently I'm the only one."
The shorts turned out to be symbolic for Wawrinka's resolve at Roland Garros.
He walked out for the French Open final with the confidence that No. 1 Novak Djokovic lacked.
"He completely deserves to win," Djokovic said afterward, in an irrefutable bit of post-match analysis, according to tennis.com. "He played much better tennis, was more courageous. I tried my best, but it wasn't the day."
Wawrinka couldn't disagree.
"I had a good talk with Magnus before the final. I was feeling really relaxed until maybe 15 minutes before to go on the court. Then I started to be really nervous," said Wawrinka, as reported by the ATP. "I'm still surprised the way I played, because I think I played amazing today. I was really nervous, but I didn't really choke. I was always going for my shots, always going for the right play.
"...(Novak) was playing well, but I knew what to do," offered the clean-hitting Swiss. "I was trying to have longer rally, trying to play more deep, trying to play more aggressive from baseline, and little by little, I started to be the player inside the court."
Until Sunday, most of the news about Wawrinka took place off the court in 2015.
The 2014 Australian Open champion's luck finally seemed to be running out. After winning in Rotterdam in February, Wawrinka had been a pedestrian 8-7 in his 15 matches leading up to the French Open. He went through a painful separation with Ilham, his wife of seven years.
She had said her ex-husband was using their breakup as an excuse for his poor play.
"No, Stan does not lose matches because of our separation, said to be painful, because it has been already five months since his triumphant return at Davis Cup," she said in French, according to tennis.com. "His decision to leave, for the second time, his family did not stop him from to winning the tournament in Chennai and having more or less, very good results."
At least, Wawrinka was able to put his professional life back together these last two weeks.
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