Wawrinka Breaks the Spell, Li Victorious in Third AO Final

The third time really was the charm for Na Li in the women's Australian Open final.  It was a very competitive first set before the Chinese took total control in the second.  Li emerges from a seeming multitude of players with a single major title to join Azarenka and Kuznetsova as active players with 2 majors.  (Only the Williams sisters and Sharapova have more majors than two.)

4) Na Li (CHN) def. 20) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 7-6(7) 6-0

-Li wins her 9th career title, 2nd of 2014, last '14 Shenzhen
-It is her 2nd major ('11 French Open)
-She begins the year 12-0
-She is now the world no. 3 and just 11 points behind Azarenka for no. 2
-She wins this major at age 31 and just a month before she turns 32, but her best tennis may still be ahead of her.

Li has put herself in position to have a career year, with this major at the beginning.  Serena and Azarenka will be back for more, but Li has the first word.  It will also be interesting to see where Cibulkova goes from here, if this was just a couple weeks of brilliance or if she'll be able to maintain more consistent results week in week out on the tour.  She is up to no. 13 in the world.

And on the on the men's side, has the spell the Big 4 had on tennis been broken?  Stanislas Wawrinka, forever known as the Swiss no. 2, has emerged from Federer's shadow to claim his own major, defeating the top 2 players in the world along the way.  He broke a 14-match losing streak to Djokovic in the quarters, and when he took the first off Nadal in the final, it was the first set he ever off the Spaniard.  How much Nadal's injury played a role we'll never know, but that doesn't take away from what the new Swiss no. 1 has done in Melbourne.

8) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) def. 1) Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-3

-Wawrinka wins his 6th career title, 2nd of 2014, last '14 Chennai
-It is his first major!
-He begins the year 11-0
-He is now the world no. 3 but still well back of Djokovic
-He is the first player outside the Big 4 to win a major since Del Potro at the '09 US Open
-He is the first man to win a first major since Murray at the '12 US Open

Wawrinka has been steadily improving for the past 1 or 2 years.  Is this climax of his climb or can he maintain this kind of level and stay in the top 5 for the rest of the year?  Have the Big 4 found a fifth or is this tournament just a one off?  Only the remainder of the season will tell, but it could be an exciting, unpredictable year.

Davis Cup is up next, I'll have a preview in the coming days.