Wawrinka: US Open triumph showed I can still beat the best

Victory at this year’s U.S. Open convinced Stan Wawrinka he is still able to compete at the very highest level and he is hopeful that will remain the case in 2017.

Wawrinka’s season came to a close on Friday as a straight-sets defeat to Andy Murray ended the former’s hopes of progressing from the round-robin stage at the ATP World Tour Finals.

Yet the Swiss was still able to reflect positively on 2016, having claimed his third grand slam title at Flushing Meadows in September.

Prior to that win, Wawrinka admitted he had started to wonder whether he was in decline.

“My age is going to be 32 next year [in March], so there are things I need to be careful on,” he explained.

“I’m always trying to improve, always trying to be at my top, trying to push the limit. Hopefully I can still be at that place next year. I’m trying everything for that.

“Even this year I was thinking maybe I was a little bit slower for some things, but then I won a grand slam. That means I’m able to beat the best players in the world.

“I will, for sure, do everything this off-season and next year to be at the top.”

Asked to analyse a season that also featured a host of early exits from Masters 1000 tournaments, Wawrinka replied: “I think [it] was [an] amazing season. I’m going to finish number four, number five in the world, with one grand slam, other titles as well.

“[It] was really important for me to win at home in Geneva. Some tough other results, for sure. Here wasn’t the best tournament, but I still fought until the end.

“I think after US Open was tough. There’s many things I can improve, I know. But if I look in general, the season is amazing for me. I won a grand slam, plus finish in the top five. That’s something I would have signed before starting the season, that’s for sure.”