Not only was Wawrinka in his first Australian Open final, but in 12 previous matches against Nadal, he had lost each of their 26 sets. Yet Nadal was being bullied, something that happens rarely and almost never in Grand Slam tournaments and about as often in a major final as a unicorn discovery.  Wawrinka served-and-volleyed. He laced one-handed-backhand winners down the line. He took Nadal out of position and went the other way. He won with shotmaking and creativity and force. He out-Nadaled Nadal.  “I was more surprised about how well I was playing,” Wawrinka said.  One game proved particularly instructive. Wawrinka served for the first set, ahead by 5-3 but behind by 0-40. Nadal faced three second serves on those break points and failed to convert on each of them. Wawrinka boomed an ace wide to hold for a 34th consecutive service game.  Wawrinka cruised early in the second set. He ripped forehand winners. He smacked one return on the backhand side at such an extreme angle that Nadal could only watch as it bounced and kicked sideways. Birds circled above, and it seemed fair to wonder if a buzzard or two were not up there among them.  Throughout the tournament, Nadal had toughed out victories despite a blister about the size of a quarter on his left palm — the most analyzed, discussed and shown-on-television blister, it seemed, in the history of tennis. He took a medical timeout not because of the blister, however, but because of his back, and the pain, which appeared severe, seemed to worsen as the second set wore on.  Nadal, who had clutched his back a few times before the timeout, retreated to the locker room, and Wawrinka talked to an official about what seemed like perhaps more of a stall tactic than an emergency.  When Nadal returned from the locker room, he did so shirtless, and the crowd booed him when he stepped back onto the court. That seemed harsh as the set continued and Nadal basically flicked serves over the net because he could hardly turn on them.  Nadal spent one second-set changeover with his head buried in his hands. He spent the time between the second and third sets being rubbed down. He grimaced and moved gingerly and generally played like an old man, or least a far older one.  Afterward, Nadal tried to keep the attention off his injury. He did allow that his back hurt during warm-ups. He did acknowledge how often he seemed to miss this tournament with an injury or sustain one while playing here. He seemed reflective and tired, but mostly sad.  “I talk enough about that, I think,” he said to another question about his back.  As Nadal fought through the pain, Wawrinka looked to be weighing how he should play, how aggressive he should be, whether to step on the throat of a clearly diminished opponent. Then again, with the stakes involved, what was he supposed to do? Ease up?  Wawrinka’s level slowed some, and Nadal’s picked up. It was clear that Nadal’s injury had affected both players, even if inadvertently. Nadal held serve to start the third set and broke Wawrinka after that. There was some daylight, and although he still could not serve or move all that well, he mounted an odd comeback.  “Sorry to finish this way,” Nadal said in his runner-up speech. “I tried very, very hard.”  For Nadal, there would be no 14th Grand Slam singles championship. He would not tie Pete Sampras for second place, would not creep closer to Federer’s total of 17, would not become the first player in the Open era to secure every major tournament title at least twice.  For Wawrinka, there was elation, even if the back injury slightly overshadowed, perhaps unfairly, what he had managed to pull off. Not only did he upend the top two seeds, including a longtime foil in Djokovic, but his victory will push him to No. 3 in the next ATP World Tour rankings, ahead of a certain Swiss tennis superstar who has overshadowed him for his whole career.  That man, Federer, called with congratulations.  Hours after the match ended, Wawrinka finished up his news conference. Someone asked how he planned to celebrate.  “There’s a big chance I get drunk tonight,” he said.  A version of this article appears in print on January 27, 2014, on page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: A Bizarrely Fitting Finale Yields a Most Unexpected Champion. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Stanislas Wawrinka defeated Rafael Nadal, bringing the strangest match of an odd tournament to a conclusion one couldn’t have expected.