Stan Wawrinka is your 2014 Australian Open champion. No, really.

First and foremost, our sincerest apologies for our absence from TheOuterCourts.com; we've been trapped in a blizzard here in Kentucky and life has been difficult. And by difficult I mean freezing. But I did manage to stay awake, barely, for last night's men's final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic Stanislas Wawrinka. And it was awesome.

Wawrinka upset the tournament's top seed in the finals to become the lowest-ranked player to win a Grand Slam singles title since 2004 and the lowest-seeded man to win the Australian Open since 2002. He said it felt like it was dreaming when he won the match, a feeling I can share with him considering I fought off snores to watch him do it. Caffeine is a beautiful thing.

Nadal, the tournament's favorite, wasn't at 100 percent in the match, but that shouldn't take away from Wawrinka's improbable run through the tournament. Wawrinka defeated Nadal after 12 losses, no wins, and not a single won set in their head-to-head history.

It wasn't the way the tournament was supposed to play out, but it happened. It really happened. Stanislas Wawrinka, a former enemy of The Outer Courts when he sent Ivo Karlovic home from the Open, is your 2014 Australian Open champion.

No, really.  He won.