The Swiss domination continues to hold sway at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship. But this time around it’s Stan Wawrinka and not Roger Federer, who returns to defend his title in the ATP 500 tournament.

Focused as Wawrinka is about retaining his crown in Dubai, the topic of conversation around him also swirls around to bigger aspects about his career, most specifically, about him potentially completing the career Grand Slam.

In the last three years, Wawrinka has penetrated the bastion of the Big Four and convincingly make a case for the terminology to be widened to the Fab Five. And, he has done so by pocketing three different Majors – the Australian, French and US Opens – in each of the last three years. Thus, the Swiss No 1 only needs to win Wimbledon to become the fourth player after Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in recent years, to achieve the milestone.

Advertisement

On his part, however, Wawrinka isn’t thinking that far ahead. “A career Grand Slam is not a goal at the moment,” the 31-year-old went on to say in his pre-tournament media interaction in Dubai. “It is already an amazing thing for me to have won three Grand Slams. Each one of these are so very special for me. Every year I am trying my best at Wimbledon and during the grass court season. But I have never played grass as good as the rest of the surfaces. I am still pushing for finding my best game on that surface, so we will see this year.”

Considering that the season is still in its first quarter, with the clay season yet to commence, it’s too early to dwell on the grass season and Wimbledon. In that then, Wawrinka has his priorities set, which could mean a good showing in Dubai – even as good as last year’s – in his only third tournament in 2017, after Brisbane and the Australian Open.

The World No 3, who is seeded second here, will play his first match against Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur on Tuesday.