Veteran Stan Wawrinka, three-time winner of Grand Slam tournaments and former world No.3, saw his long career end on Tuesday at the age of 41 with a defeat against the Czech Jiri Lehecka (21st), winner of the Swiss 7-5, 7-6 (7/2) in the first round of the ATP 500 tournament in Basel.
Turning professional in 2002, the Vaudois, falling to 151st in the world, leaves the circuit with 16 titles to his credit, including the Australian Open and the Masters 1000 of Monte-Carlo in 2014, Roland-Garros in 2015 and the US Open in 2016.
Olympic doubles champion in Beijing in 2008, alongside his illustrious compatriot Roger Federer, Wawrinka also won the Davis Cup in 2014.
With the Briton Andy Murray, former world No.1 and also three-time winner of major tournaments, he was one of the only players to sustainably challenge the almost absolute control of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the Grand Slam.
Wawrinka is also one of only three players to have beaten Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray in one of the four major tournaments in world tennis.
“I was lucky enough to be able to rub shoulders with them, play with them, and beat them from time to time,” he relished in 2024 in an interview with AFP.
The Swiss had already been honored on Monday in Basel during a ceremony in the presence of former world No.1 Martina Hingis. He is the third former member of the top 10 to retire in a few weeks, after the Japanese Kei Nishikori and the French Gaël Monfils.
For his last season on the circuit, Wawrinka distinguished himself by reaching the third round of the Australian Open in January and managing to briefly re-enter the world top 100 at the end of winter. Since he passed the quarantine mark in March 2025, the native of Lausanne has won twelve matches on the main circuit, a record since the creation of the ATP circuit in 1990.
Winner of his last ATP title in Geneva in 2017, the right-hander with the formidable one-handed backhand subsequently experienced several injuries, notably having two operations on his left knee and twice on his left foot.
