Stan Wawrinka won the French Open with the help of a ridiculous backhand around the side of the net
Stan Wawrinka won his second the second Grand Slam title of his career with a four-set upset of top-seeded Novak Djokovic in the final at the French Open, and he did it with a devastating backhand.
There was one backhand in particular that left fans buzzing.
The shot came in the pivotal third set. After Djokovic won the first set, Wawrinka came back to win the second set and was up 5-2 in the third.
During one rally with Djokovic serving, he hit a shot wide to Wawrinka's backhand. With Djoker anticipating a shot back across the court, Wawrinka instead went for the near sideline. But in order to do that, he had to go around the net instead of over it.
Djokovic took one step and just gave up.
John McEnroe, serving as an analyst for NBC and a master shot maker of his own, could only simply ask, "Whoa, how'd he do that?"
In fact, Wawrinka not only went around the net, he also had to avoid the IBM box sitting next to the net.
It is also a shot that would have been impossible just 16 years ago as Wawrinka's shot would have annihilated the net cord judge who used to sit in that very spot.
Wawrinka did lose this particular game to Djokovic, but came back and won the next game to take a 2-1 lead in sets. But more importantly, the shot showed everybody that Wawrinka's backhand was on another level in the final and it was going to be nearly impossible to stop.