'Anything is possible': Stan Wawrinka one of the favourites for French Open says René Stammbach

Stan Wawrinka is one of the favourites for the French Open according to the president of Swiss Tennis, René Stammbach.

The current world number three won his third career Grand Slam in the US Open in 2016, finishing the year as the fourth best ranked player in tennis.

Wawrinka then reached the semi-final of the Australian Open this year, losing to compatriot and eventual winner Roger Federer.

Despite recovering from two sets down and still losing, the promising performances of Wawrinka in Melbourne saw him move up to three in the world rankings.

The 32-year-old would lose to Federer again, this time in the final of the BNP Paribas Open before losing in the fourth round of the Miami Open to Alexander Zverev.

However, Wawrinka was able to win his first title of the year as he successfully defended his Geneva Open crown by recently defeating Mischa Zverev in the final on Saturday (27 May). And Stammbach believes that the Swiss ace, who won the French Open in 2015, is a contender to win the Grand Slam in Paris, despite his patchy form in the last few months.

"With Stan, anything is possible," he said, as quoted on Tennis World USA. "He can win a Grand Slam after losing several times prematurely in preparation tournaments."

"As we have seen in recent years, it always depends on the first rounds. If he has trouble in his first game, it's a good sign! Me, I have a great confidence in him and he remains one of the favourites for the title."

Stammbach is also not surprised at Federer's decision to skip the French Open but is content with the representation that the Swiss contingent will have at Roland Garros.

"Well, we still have Wawrinka, Bacsinszky, Golubic as well as Hingis in the doubles and Masarova in the juniors," he added. "For a small country like Switzerland, it's not so bad."

Wawrinka begins his French Open campaign against Slovakia's Jozef Kovalík on 31 May (Wednesday).