Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland poses with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup after defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain in their men's singles final match at the Australian Open 2014 tennis tournament in Melbourne
Stanislas Wawrinka was the eighth seed at the 2014 Australian Open. He was the first one to advance in the Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific because Andrey Golubev was forced to retire due to an injured leg. The Swiss then faced Colombia’s Alejandro Falla. Wawrinka easily won the first two sets, but Falla was determined to fight back and won the third set. Wawrinka regained control and advanced in the next round. He had another easy victory after Canada’s Vasek Pospisil withrew from their scheduled third-round match due to an injury that the Canadian has suffered in his previous match. Wawrinka’s quarterfinal match was against current World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. The Swiss beat the three-time defending Serbian champion, ending Djokovic’s 25-match winning streak at the Australian Open since 2011. In the semifinals, Wawrinka faced Tomas Berdych and won in four sets. Then, he stunned Rafael Nadal in the finale. The 29-year-old Swiss took home the victory in three out of four sets in under three hours. Wawrinka reportedly won prize money worth $2.3 million. The 2014 Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that Wawrinka had won. Reuters

Nobody gave Stanislas Wawrinka a chance.

Pre-tournament, sports betting lines pegged him at 54.00 to win the 2014 Australian Open men’s title. For betting newbies, that means that a $100 bet on the Swiss would have netted a $5,400 payout—far cry from the usual suspects and favourites Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic who were priced between 2.00 to 5.00 ($100 would have won $200 or $500, respectively).

This was neither insult nor disrespect, after all those two—along with Andy Murray and Roger Federer were the only players to win a Majors title since 2005.

In his match against Djokovic in the quarterfinals, he was priced at 8.00 in the money line to win the match. Again, not a slight to the Swiss but because of the Serbian’s streak—Djoke won 15 of 17 matches against Stan including fourteen straight!

Alas, the underdog won in their 18th meeting as Wawrinka hacked out the 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 9-7 victory in yet another classic between the two rivals.

Against Tomas Berdcyh of Czech Republic in the semifinals, the books started to notice. Wawrinka was the favourite against the Czech and was pegged at 1.74 to win the match. He delivered the 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) victory and booked a place in the championship round.

When the finals rolled— Rafael Nadal of Spain, Wawrinka had to take the backseat in the bookies line once again and was priced at 5.00 to win the match against the world number one. No surprise again, as the Spaniard took a dozen wins in a dozen match-ups with the Swiss.

Yet, the underdog once again delivered. Even before Nadal experienced an injury in the second set—apparently of back spasms—Wawrinka was already dominating perhaps the best tennis player in the world. Wawrinka took the first set rather easily, 6-3 and was leading 2-0 in the second set before Nadal left for a medical timeout.

Nadal returned some seven minutes later to a booing Rod Laver Arena and still a motivated Wawrinka, who took the second, 6-2. He finished off Nadal in four sets.

From the tournament’s 8th seed to a Grand Slam champion. Wawrinka became the first man to beat both the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked players on the way to a Majors title since 1993. And he did it in his first Grand Slam final appearance.

Tennis’ Big Four—Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Murray—might want to make notice. Wawrinka has arrived and he’s not planning to go away from here on out.