Indeed, you might be such a casual follower of the sport, that today following his Australian Open victory over Rafael Nadal, might have been the first time you've 'properly' heard of Wawrinka.
However for us dedicated lovers of tennis, Wawrinka is somebody that has been threatening to reach the top for a significant period now and whilst today's victory was slightly over shadowed by the injuries suffered to Nadal in the match, it was no more than the 28 year old deserved for the improvements he has brought to his game.
Wawrinka has always been a supremely talented tennis player. In 2009, as he pushed Andy Murray all the way in a five set thriller at Wimbledon, John McEnroe commented that his backhand is one of the most powerful he has ever seen and the best in the game today.
However, for years Wawrinka seemed unable to push the large shadow of Roger Federer out of his way as his countryman collected Grand Slam after Grand Slam on his way to being arguably the greatest man to ever pick up a tennis racket. Wawrinka on the other hand was only producing the odd occasional result that made tennis followers take notice, such as beating Federer in Monte Carlo in 2009 or indeed gaining revenge over Murray by beating him in the third round of the 2010 US Open.
He seemed destined for a career on the fringes of tennis. Between July 2007 and January 2010 he lost in five consecutive finals as he failed to add to his one career tournament victory (which was only achieved in 2006 due to a retirement by Novak Djokovic). His single tournament victories in 2010 and 2011 came over journeymen Victor Hanescu and Xavier Mallise respectively and apart from runs to the quarter finals of the 2010 US Open and 2011 Australian Open, he never contended at the latter stages of the grand slams.
2013 though was when things started to click for Wawrinka. Sportsmen in all disciplines have had breakthrough years and this proved to be Wawrinka's. The signs emerged during an unbelievable fourth round clash with Djokovic at the Australian Open, where after over five hours of absorbing tennis, Wawrinka only just lost 12-10 to one of the finest hard court players ever.
Despite losing, that seemed to give him the confidence to truly believe that he could reach the top of the sport. He subsequently reached a final in Argentina, losing to David Ferrer before gaining revenge for that defeat by winning the Portugal Open in May, his first title since January 2011 before going on to reach the Madrid Masters Final having beaten Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych, fellow top ten players along the way.
He enjoyed his best performance at the French Open, reaching the quarter finals having come from two sets down to beat Richard Gasquet in a one-handed backhand classic before losing to clay court king Nadal.
A true sign of Wawrinka's growing mental strength was that despite a bad loss to Lleyton Hewitt in the first round of Wimbledon, he produced his best run at a Grand Slam by reaching the semi-finals of the US Open. He knocked out the more fancied Berdych in the fourth round before truly announcing himself on the world stage by beating defending champion and Wimbledon winner Andy Murray in straight sets in the quarter finals.
Once again, Djokovic was his nemesis as he won another five set thriller despite Wawrinka being two sets to one up on him in the semi-finals. But the 2014 Australian Open was to finally give Wawrinka the biggest title of his career.
And boy did he have to do it the hard way. Still seeded only eighth for the tournament despite a superb 2013 when he enjoyed nine victories over top ten players, he finally got the better of Djokovic in a Grand Slam at the quarter final stage, showing incredible resilience to win 9-7 in the fifth set.
Tomas Berdych, the number seven seed was next up in the semi-finals and although this time it was done in four sets, three of those were tie-breaks. Unlike Berdych, Wawrinka had never reached a slam final so his mental strength in winning two of those three tie-breaks has to be greatly applauded.
The sternest test awaited Wawrinka in today's final. That of World Number One Rafael Nadal who had bounced back from a lengthy injury quite superbly in 2013. Few commentators gave Wawrinka much hope. However, he came out of the blocks firing which took Rafa by surprise and he was able to take the first set 6-3.
The second set will forever be remembered as the moment when Nadal broke down on court clearly suffering a back injury and had to take a medical time-out. Now some harsh people might say that because of this Wawrinka's win deserves a star next to it or it was a win by default because for a significant amount of time Nadal couldn't even serve properly.
The newly crowned Australian Open champion shouldn't listen to anyone who says that. In his first slam final, he had to work out how to deal with the injured Nadal, who wanted to carry on out of respect for himself and the crowd. That's hardly a situation himself and coach Magnus Norman could have prepared for over the last few days.
Wawrinka showed superb mental strength to carry on playing his natural game, especially after losing the third set (if anyone could have come back, it would have been Nadal) to hold on in the heat of battle and secure a memorable first Grand Slam title.
Make no doubt about it, over the next few years Stanislas Wawrinka is going to become a much more widely known name in households across the world. With an incredible one handed backhand, a solid serve and a sheer determined will to win, the man they describe as "Stanimal" is the real deal.
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