Stanislas Wawrinka

When asked about his preparations coming into his first tournament of the new season, Stanislas Wawrinka said, “I can't wait to kick off the season after working hard during the off season. “I love those events at the beginning of the year and hopefully I can do as well as last year or maybe even better. Breaking back into the top-10 would be great and is always one of my goals. I'm not that far and feel that I can do it.”

Wawrinka also added about how he trained back in his home country and how he is all excited about defending his title at the Chennai Open. “My preparation was great. I spent some time in Gstaad in the Swiss mountains where I did a lot of physical work. Then I went back to Lausanne where I practiced a lot on the court with some Swiss players. I feel like I'm ready and well prepared.”

“I always look forward to the week in Chennai. The conditions suit my game and I have played some great matches in this stadium. The atmosphere can get very electric, the crowd is very enthusiastic, and that's something I like.”

Talking about players who could pose a threat for him in the event, Wawrinka said, “The draw is very interesting and it will be a great tournament for sure. Janko Tipsarevic has showed in 2011 that he is one of the contenders for the top 10 in 2012; Milos Raonic is a young player with an impressive game who loves to play on any fast surface and will for sure cause some upsets in the next few months. Nicolas Almagro is a big fighter and always a tough opponent.”

Wawrinka further added, “As I said, I'm looking forward to defend my title. I have played some great tennis here and hope that it will be the case again this year. The tournament has a great line-up and it will be very challenging. The level in men's tennis is great and you have to play your best to be able to win matches, not even talking about reaching finals or titles. But I'm confident that I can do well again, hopefully with the support of the crowd.”

On asked to review 2011, Wawrinka commented, “ Helping to bring Switzerland back into the World Group in Davis Cup was one of my biggest achievements in 2011. Roger Federer has confirmed his participation for the first round tie against the USA. We haven't discussed all the details yet but we will fight hard to defend our title at the Olympics and in Wimbledon.”

Wawrinka has split with his coach Peter Lundgren.

Wawrinka: "He played a major role in my career and I am deeply grateful. We have had a lot of success and fun working together, I can't thank him enough."

From AAP: Wawrinka dominated his match, breezing past 29-year-old Nalbandian, who has now lost two straight first-round matches on cement in as many weeks.
The Swiss advanced with eight aces and 25 winners while his Argentine opponent - a US Open semi-finalist in 2003 - struck 22 unforced errors and lost serve four times.
``With him, you never know,'' said the winner.
``Today he was not playing really good. I think he's not really ready. But in one week he can change his level."
``Next week he can play really well, beat every player, and be in the semi-final or final. But we'll see.''

Stan was well prepared for his match with Nalbandian - apparently he'd been practising in Montreal for five days before the match.

Wawrinka: "It's never easy. But with experience every year it's more easy for me to come back from clay to hard court. I had almost a week, five days here to practise, to be ready. Everything is great. I'm playing great, I'm practising really well. To win in two straight sets was really good for me."

Wawrinka will play Munich

He wasn't on the Entry-List released on Tuesday, but he'll play anyway: The Swiss IW quarterfinalist, ranked 14, will also play the BMW Open in Munich. A technical problem hadn't shown the former number 9 on the Entry-List. Wawrinka is the 2nd Top-20 player besides Cilic at the 1st German ATP tournament of the year.

@Rafa, confirmation about Wawrinka:

World No. 21 Stanislas Wawrinka from Switzerland has received a wild card entry for the 2011 Aircel ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament to be held from January 3 to 9.

Announcing this on Wednesday, Ravi Krishnan of IMG who own the property, said: "Originally, Wawrinka had indicated that he would be taking that particular week off, but subsequently, he changed his mind and requested for an entry. The organising committee agreed to allot him one of the three wild cards that were available."

Wawrinka was runner-up to Croatian Marin Cilic in the singles last year and that, besides his world ranking, weighed in his favour.

"Even otherwise, on the strength of his ATP ranking, Wawrinka was entitled for a direct entry in the 32-man main draw. We are of course extremely pleased to have him here, given his stature," said organising committee chairman Karti P Chidambaram.

As regards the other two wild cards available with the organising committee, Chidambaram said they would be decided in due course.

Wawrinka joins the likes of 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych, the highest ranked player in the draw at No. 6, Marin Cilic (14), Richard Gasquet (29), Jeremy Chardy (45) and Janko Tipserevic (59), in the main draw.

Source: Times of India.

@Rafa, you were asking about where Wawrinka's playing.
It's being suggested that he'll be given a wildcard into Chennai.

Stanislas Wawrinka will play Valencia this fall instead of the ATP event in Basel held the same week.

Headlines in Switzerland described Wawrinka as 'sulking' and 'turning his back' on the Swiss tournament, which is headlined by hometown favorite Roger Federer.

Wawrinka, who played and won his local challenger in Lugano just before Wimbledon, also missed the Swiss tournament in Gstaad held shortly after Wimbledon. He has been a consistent presence for Switzerland in Davis Cup, which has had only selective appearances by Federer in recent years.

After splitting with Dimitri Zavialoff almost a month ago, Wawrinka has finally announced his new coach - Peter Lundgren.

Lundgren is best known for working with Federer and Safin (also Rios many years before), and until recent times had been in charge of promising talent Grigor Dimitrov before a long run of bad results saw that partnership turn sour.

Lundgren said; "When I asked what he wanted help with, he said he wants to return to the Top 10. It's what you want to hear as a coach...I'm going to try to get Stan to become more aggressive. I have some modifications to make to Stan's game. It needs new ideas so that he can become a complete player."

"He is physically good and has a solid technique, but plays a bit too far back behind the baseline. That and his serve, we will begin to work with"

The pair will head to Lausanne for a two-week training camp before Stan travels to Washington which will be their first event working together.