{"id":147399,"date":"2025-09-19T12:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T12:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/147399\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T12:58:10","slug":"novak-djokovics-verdict-when-asked-if-stan-wawrinka-should-be-considered-part-of-tennis-elite-back-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/147399\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic&#8217;s verdict when asked if Stan Wawrinka should be considered part of tennis&#8217; elite back in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Stan Wawrinka is still playing tennis, and although he\u2019s past his best, he is a serial Grand Slam winner. <\/p>\n<p>At the weekend, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/stan-wawrinka-gives-emotional-reaction-after-failing-to-create-tennis-history-and-losing-in-final\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wawrinka was beaten in the final<\/a> of an event on the Challenger Tour, and it\u2019s clear that he\u2019s not ready to pack the rackets away for the final time just yet. <\/p>\n<p>In an era where the Big Three dominated Grand Slam honours boards between them, Wawrinka managed to collect three major titles. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/throwbacks\/what-stan-wawrinka-said-about-how-novak-djokovic-treated-him-behind-the-scenes-during-the-us-open-in-2016\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Novak Djokovic has some kind words for Wawrinka<\/a> after losing to the Swiss player in the 2016 US Open final, and that sparked a debate of sorts. <\/p>\n<p>Many felt at the time that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/andy-murray\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Murray<\/a> had already joined the Big Three to make it a Big Four, whilst the media asked Djokovic whether Wawrinka should make it a Big Five. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"666\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2223371820-1024x666.jpg\" alt=\"Novak Djokovic during his Gentlemen's Singles Fourth Round match against Alex de Minaur during day eight of The Championships Wimbledon 2025 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.\" class=\"wp-image-129969\" \/>Photo by Rob Newell \u2013 CameraSport via Getty ImagesNovak Djokovic\u2019s verdict on Stan Wawrinka in 2016<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s quite remarkable to think that once upon a time, Djokovic was beatable at Grand Slam tournaments, given that he\u2019s won 23 of them. <\/p>\n<p>However, that\u2019s what happened in 2016 when Wawrinka came from behind to beat the Serbian legend in four sets to claim his third Grand Slam title. <\/p>\n<p>Afterwards, Djokovic shared his opinion on whether Wawrinka should be considered as part of a Big Five.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cWell, I mean, he deserves to be in the mix, no doubt about it. Stan won three Grand Slams now and three different ones; an Olympic medal. Been around for so many years, and he plays best in the big matches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, he definitely deserves to be mentioned in the mix of top players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe loves to play in the big matches. He comes up with his best game. He\u2019s so solid from both corners. He\u2019s got a good slice and an amazing one-handed backhand, all corners. Big serve. Moves well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a very complete player. Sometimes, if he feels right, he doesn\u2019t miss much and makes a lot of winners, and it\u2019s hard to play him. That\u2019s what happened today. And that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wawrinka part of the elite group<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to Wawrinka \u2013 and Murray \u2013 they have to be considered truly great players just because of the era they played in. <\/p>\n<p>With Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Djokovic all winning at least 20 majors, it made it almost impossible for others to weigh in. <\/p>\n<p>Murray and Wawrinka winning three Grand Slams each is pretty special considering the competition they had for the trophies in their pomp. <\/p>\n<p>Djokovic knew he\u2019d been in a match at the US Open in 2016 and for neutral tennis fans it was great to see someone outside of the big three collect another major title. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stan Wawrinka is still playing tennis, and although he\u2019s past his best, he is a serial Grand Slam&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[6766,101,118,56,54,55,6546],"class_list":{"0":"post-147399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-novak-djokovic","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom","14":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}