Contrary to popular belief, Athletes don’t always just get love from the masses. A very close friend to Roger Federer, the 16-time ATP winner Stan Wawrinka has been in a similar situation recently. The Swiss icon took it upon himself to expose some of the bitter DMs regarding his recent failure in the 2023 Astana Open.

Instead of ignoring the negativity, Wawrinka took a different approach to deal with the hate. Regarding the match, it’s apparent that fans were not ready for Wawrinka to lose in the first round itself. As a result, trolls on Instagram have been sending spiteful messages to Wawrinka since his match, and it seems like he had enough of it.

Stanislas Wawrinka teaches trolls an important lesson

This year’s Astana Open took an interesting turn on its first day after the qualifier round. 3-time Grand Slam winner Stanislas Wawrinka was up against the American pro, Marcos Giron. After a competitive match with scores like 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), and 7-6 (6), Giron progressed to the second round of the tournament, leaving the Swiss ace out of the race.

The comments about his fitness and capability to play are being constantly undermined in these hate messages. One troll even asked him to stop talking to Pique and start focusing on his training. Another troll sent him a bunch of clown emojis, meant to label Stan as a clown. Wawrinka is often considered to be a calm force on the court. The way he handled this situation proves even further that he is as composed in real life as well. Stan took care of the issue by merely putting screenshots of those chats on his Instagram story. 

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Wawrinka even added a text saying “Hi Guys” followed by a few hand gestures and laughing emojis, which shows his humility – a complete shutdown by the 38-year-old as he didn’t hide or scratch out the names of those trolls. The remarks about his age and fitness were very personal and low blows against a career athlete who has proven his worth in the game.

Wawrinka’s ability to keep up in question

Stan Wawrinka, despite being almost a decade older, kept Giron on his toes throughout the match. However, he has talked about his retirement a couple of times in the past as well. Stan has had multiple knee surgeries and has been out of form since the beginning of this year. After his below-par performances in the Australian Open and French Open, it seems like his body is taking a hit.

Stan, in one of his interviews with the ‘Tennis Channel Desk’, stated clearly that his goal is to win one more trophy before he retires. Although the trolls had no effect on Wawrinka, they did plant reasonable doubt amongst his fans. Wawrinka’s fitness is under scrutiny due to his recent loss. However, the fact of the matter is Marcos Giron is relatively young and did have an edge over Stan in Astana. 

Since winning and losing are the two sides of every game, every athlete has been on the losing side multiple times throughout their careers and Wawrinka has been a pro since 2002. Keeping the hate aside, is it fair to raise questions about his fitness? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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