Wawrinka Defeats Federer in All-Swiss, Ends Big 4's Masters Run

For years Stanislas Wawrinka has lived beneath the shadow of Roger Federer, forever known as the Swiss no. 2.  That last part changed at the Australian Open when Wawrinka won his first major and moved past Federer in the rankings.  But Federer still owned a 13-1 head-to-head against his compatriot.  In Monte Carlo, Nadal was upset by Ferrer in the quarters and Federer stunned Djokovic in straight sets in the semis.  Wawrinka beat Ferrer and the first all-Swiss final since '00 Marseille (Rosset def. Federer).  Given the head-to-head, it looked as if Federer was going to add an 8th different Masters to his collection and be just short Rome from winning all 9.  But Wawrinka had other plans and came from a set down to defeat his friend and compatriot.  Is it safe to say he has finally emerged from Federer's shadow?  Wawrinka also becomes the first player outside the Big 4 to win a Masters other than Paris since Roddick won '10 Miami.

This results also shows how little I know.  I thought a Nadal-Djokovic final was obviously going to happen.  But along came Federer and Ferrer and beat them.  Perhaps the stranglehold the Big 4 has had has been broken and picking winning won't be choosing between one of four names.  Maybe they are vulnerable to upsets.  Maybe Wawrinka's win in Melbourne wasn't a one off.  That said, maybe we should have seen this coming last year, when the Big 4 did win every Masters title but 7 of the finals (plus Ferrer in the French Open final) were not Big 4 members.  The rest of the clay season could get very interesting.

3) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) def. 4) Roger Federer (SUI) 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2
-Wawrinka wins 7th career title, 3rd of 2014, last '14 Aussie Open
-It is his first Masters title in his 3rd final ('08 Rome, '13 Madrid)
-Wawrinka has put 775 points between himself and Federer for #3 in the rankings with Federer defending the Rome final in a few weeks.  He is nearly 4500 points behind Djokovic.
-Ferrer has moved past Berdych to get back to #5
-Nadal leads Djokovic by nearly 2300 points now after Djokovic failed to defend his title

Despite Fed Cup, there was still a WTA tournament, albeit with one of the worst fields possible.  Still they managed to lure Cibulkova away from her Fed Cup teammates in Quebec.  She made the final but came up short there, falling to 17-yr-old Donna Vekic in the final of Kuala Lumpur.  For Vekic, it is her first career title, and she appears to have finally broken out of a nearly yearlong slump that was about to drop her outside the top 100 after she came rising up the rankings last year.  As would be expected at a tournament where the last direct entry was ranked no. 171 (Savchuk), several players made new career firsts.

WTA International: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7) Donna Vekic (CRO) def. 1) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 5-7 7-5 7-6(4)
-Vekic wins first career title
-She went 3 sets in 4 of her 5 wins
-Americans: none, though Venus had to pull out with injury
-Six of the eight seeds reached the quarters. #5 Date-Krumm (ret. vs Buyukakcay) and #8 Morita (l. to L.Kichenok) did not.
-24-yr-old Cagla Buyukakcay, ranked no. 150, became the first Turk to reach a WTA quarterfinal
-20-yr-old Zarina Diyas (KAZ), ranked no. 93, reached her first WTA quarterfinal
-The list is long of players recording their first WTA main draw win:  Giulia Gotto-Monticone (ITA), a 26-yr-old qualifier; Lyudmyla Kichenok (UKR), the twin of Nadiya but barely ranked inside the top 200 so not as successful; Ling Zhang (HKG), a 24-yr-old wild card ranked no. 318
-It was a first WTA main draw appearance for qualifier Eri Hozumi (JPN), a 20-yr-old ranked no. 170
-The 3rd set tiebreak in the final was the only one of the week
-Karolina Pliskova was the defending champion (though the tournament was played the week before Indian Wells last year).  She lost to Cibulkova in the semis.