Wawrinka Stuns Nadal and Wins Australian Open Final!

This has got to be on of the biggest upsets ever in a Grand Slam Final!

Stanislas Wawrinka pulled off a shocker, and defeated heavily favored Nadal in four sets.

Nadal entered the match ranked number one in the world, and having won two of the last three Grand Slam championships, with last year's French open victory, which he followed up with a victory at the US Open.

He was looking unstoppable so far this year, too. He had dominated at the Australian Open, and had just defeated Roger Federer in the semifinal to qualify for the Australian Open Men's Final for the third time in his career. He had defeated the great Roger Federer here in the final back in 2009, and then got back to the final in 2012, only to lose to the red hot Novak Djokovic at the time.

In the meantime, Wawrinka had never gotten to a single Grand Slam final event, and the general consensus is that he would be limited due to nerves. Also, Wawrinka had not only never beaten Nadal in eleven prior meetings, but he had failed to even take a single set from the Spaniard.

Nadal is vying to reach the heights of being considered arguably the greatest men's tennis player in history. He entered this match having won 13 grand slam titles overall, one behind Pete Sampras's 14, and four behind Roger Federer's 17. Had he won today, he would have captured at least two titles in each of the Grand Slam events, which is a feat that no man has achieved in many decades.

All of that came to an abrupt end today, however. Wawrinka jumped out ahead of Nadal, taking the first two sets surprisingly quickly, 6-3, 6-2.

Nadal was struggling with back problems, as well as a severe blister on his left hand (the hand he holds the racket with). Still, he had played very impressively to this point, and you knew he was not going down without a fight. he battled back, and took the third set, 6-3.

All looked even in the fourth set, with Wawrinka serving first, and both men holding serve through the set.

But already up 4-3 on the set, Wawrinka managed to break Nadal, to go up 5-3, with a chance to serve for the match, and he delivered.

Wawrinka won the match overall, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

The result is a shocking setback for Nadal, who seemed to be on the cusp of greatness with what was generally seen as almost a guaranteed victory. He did manage to tie Ivan Lendl's 19 total of Grand Slam Finals reached, which only Federer has surpassed thus far. He would have tied Pete Sampras for second on the all-time list of Grand Slam Finals won, and was seen as a serious threat to possibly overtake Federer's record.

Instead, Nadal once again fell short of the elusive Grand Slam title down under, and Wawrinka becomes only the second Swiss man (Federer being the first) to win a Grand Slam championship!