“Toni always tries to help,” as Stan Wawrinka snapped at officials for failing to warn Rafael Nadal, who was training between games

Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka had one of the good rivalries on the tour before the Swiss had to sit out a large part of the past two seasons due to injury. Both players were clay court specialists and often found themselves on opposite ends of the net in the business ends of tournaments.

The two French Open champions have met 22 times on the pitch, with 19 of those games going in Rafa’s favor while Wawrinka has only managed 3 wins against the ‘King of Clay’. Rafa went 12 games unbeaten against Wawrinka before the Swiss won his first-ever game against the Spaniard, beating him in the final Australian Open 2014 He then denied world No. 1 Nadal his second title in Australia, a title Nadal eventually won in 2022, 8 years after losing the final to Stan.

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“They didn’t give him a second warning just because it was Rafael Nadal”: Stan Wawrinka

In the return game of ATP Finals 2013, Wawrinka made his debut at the Year-End Championships while Nadal, then world No. 1, was looking for his first title at the Tour Finals event. Both Nadal and Wawrinka were in Group A and during their round-robin match, Wawrinka blamed Rafa’s then-coach and uncle Tony Nadal coaching the player to break the rules entirely.

“It’s nothing personal against Rafa or against Toni. We all know, players and referees, that Toni is always trying to help Rafa. That is normal. That’s part of the game. But if it’s too much, it’s too much. Today I didn’t agree with the referee for not telling him or giving him a second warning just because it was Rafa. We all see it. I was there. Before every point, he tried to coach him.” said Wawrinka about the whole incident.

While Rafa reached the final, he unfortunately had to lose Novak Djokovic who won his 3rd title at the ATP Finals, stopping Rafa again as that remains the only trophy missing from the Spaniard’s glorious trophy cabinet. In the next 4 encounters, Wawrinka won three of them to go head-to-head at 13-3 before Nadal won the next 6 games at a trot to maintain the 19-3 lead.

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