3 players who took the longest to make their Grand Slam breakthrough

#2 Stan Wawrinka (2014 Australian Open)

Stanislas Wawrinka

Making a trio of Grand Slam quarterfinals (2010 US Open, 2011 Australian Open, 2013 French Open) in his 35 previous Grand Slam appearances, Stan Wawrinka made his Grand Slam breakthrough at the 2014 Australian Open.

The 'other Swiss' dethroned three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in a five-set quarterfinal before seeing out Tomas Berdych in a four-set semifinal featuring three tiebreaks to reach his maiden Slam final. Up across the other side of the net stood 13-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal.

Nadal had not dropped a set against Wawrinka in 12 previous meetings, and had never lost to a first-time Grand Slam finalist (2005 French Open: beat Mariano Puerta, 2010 Wimbledon: beat Tomas Berdych, 2013 French Open: beat David Ferrer). But both would change on the day against an inspired Swiss who displayed little big stage nerves in the biggest match of his career.

Employing his laser-like single-handed backhand to devastating effect, Wawrinka punctured Nadal's baseline game to take a two-set lead for the loss of just five games. Much against the run of play, Nadal, afflicted by an injury at the end of the second set, gamely fought on to avoid a straight-sets defeat by taking the third set 6-3. But that would be as good as it got on the day for the Spaniard.

Wawrinka soon re-asserted his momentum to become the 53rd different player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam title and the 26th different player (Nadal being the 25th) to reign at the Australian Open. The Swiss' breakthrough came in his 36th appearance at a Major.