985 matches, three Grand Slam titles: Stan Wawrinka bows out in Basel

Stan Wawrinka’s final professional match ended in defeat; his farewell ended in ovations. The 41-year-old from the canton of Vaud lost 7–5, 7–6 (7–2) to Czech player Jiří Lehečka in the opening round of Basel’s ATP 500 tournament, bringing his career to a close after 985 ATP Tour matches. A packed St. Jakobshalle celebrated a player who gave Swiss tennis three Grand Slam titles, Olympic gold and a Davis Cup triumph.

Mexican waves rolled through the arena as Wawrinka took a lap of honour to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best”. Then he put down his racket. “It was a perfect farewell in Switzerland,” he said. The setting had long been settled: at the start of the season, Wawrinka had announced that his home tournament in Basel would be his last as a professional.

No parting gift on court

Lehečka, ranked 21st in the world, did not let the occasion distract him from winning. Wawrinka kept both sets competitive but surrendered the first 7–5. He took the second to a tie-break, which the Czech won 7–2. There would be no further match for the Swiss player in front of the Basel crowd.

Yet this was much more than a first-round exit. Wawrinka had already been honoured at a ceremony in Basel on Monday, attended by former world number one Martina Hingis. After the final point, the stage belonged to him again. For the spectators, the focus was not the opening-round winner but a career that had begun in 2002.

Wawrinka leaves the sport ranked 151st. That final position says little about his standing in tennis. At his peak, he was world number three. He won 16 ATP titles, overcoming some of the players who defined his era along the way.

Three major titles against the best

Wawrinka won the Australian Open in 2014, the French Open in 2015 and the US Open in 2016. For three consecutive years, he claimed one of the sport’s four most important titles. He did so while Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic largely dominated the Grand Slams, with Andy Murray also competing for the biggest trophies.

That opposition makes his record exceptional. Wawrinka did not simply exploit a brief opening between generations. His greatest victories came in the midst of those champions’ dominance. He is also among the few players to have beaten Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray individually at Grand Slam tournaments.

His signature was the one-handed backhand: a shot that allowed him not merely to defend but to dictate rallies. It embodied a game capable of breaking through against the strongest opponents. The nickname “Stan the Man” followed a player whose finest performances resonated far beyond Switzerland.

His particularly successful 2014 season also included the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 title. His career cannot therefore be reduced to three Grand Slam victories. Those 16 tournament wins showed that he could establish himself at the top beyond tennis’s four biggest stages, too.

More than Federer’s doubles partner

In Swiss tennis, Wawrinka was long closely associated with Federer. Together, they won Olympic doubles gold in Beijing in 2008. In 2014, both were part of the team that brought the Davis Cup, the international men’s team competition, to Switzerland for the first time. Individual strengths combined to write a shared chapter in the country’s sporting history.

His Grand Slam titles also established Wawrinka’s identity in his own right. He was not simply the successful compatriot alongside Federer, but one of the few players capable of winning on tennis’s grandest stages. For Switzerland, that meant extraordinary strength at the summit of the men’s game: alongside Federer stood a second multiple Grand Slam champion.

Ending his career at home consequently gave the farewell particular significance. Basel offered the chance to celebrate not just individual victories but the endurance of a player who remained a professional for more than two decades. The crowd’s tribute embraced that whole journey, rather than the result of his final match.

Injuries, comebacks and a chosen ending

Wawrinka won his last ATP title in Geneva in 2017. Injuries subsequently made his path more difficult. He underwent two operations on his left knee and two on his left foot. His later years on tour were therefore also shaped by the effort to become competitive again.

Even in his final season, there were notable results. In January, he reached the third round of the Australian Open, and towards the end of winter he briefly returned to the top 100. Since his 40th birthday in March 2025, he won 12 matches at the highest tour level — a record for that age group since the ATP Tour was founded in 1990.

That long period of perseverance is now over. There will be no next professional match after Basel. Wawrinka’s final evening brought no additional victory, but it delivered the farewell he had chosen: in Switzerland, in front of full stands, with a crowd celebrating everything his career had meant.