Stan Wawrinka will receive the goodbye he deserves at the 2026 US Open. It comes a decade after the one-handed Swiss maestro won the tournament.
A lot of you here might think this is a tennis hoddle. It isn’t. It’s one about an athlete who has meant so much to me during the second half of my childhood and a great deal of my adulthood.
Stanislas Wawrinka has been a fixture of my life for 18 years.
I didn’t know who Wawrinka was the first time I saw him play. I watched him in-person at the 2008 Pacific
Life Open (Now BNP Paribas) in Indian Wells, California. It’s the biggest tournament outside the four majors. My father and I drove there in my freshman year of high school.
The first men’s tennis match I ever saw was between Stanislas Wawrink against this young challenger to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. His name was Novak Djokovic, and he just won the 2008 Australian Open.
Djokovic won the quarterfinal matchup against Wawrinka 7-6 6-2. But it wasn’t their final encounter.
Wawrinka would go on to become the greatest challenger to the Big Four. Juan Martin del Potro won the US Open in 2009 but it was Wawrinka who would go on to secure three Grand Slams – the 2014 Australian Open, the 2015 French Open and the 2016 US Open.
To watch Wawrinka at his peak was a dream. There were some beautiful one-handed backhands on tour, but none were delivered with the ferocity like Wawrinka. He was breathtaking to watch, and I still have the Yonex racquet he used during the 2014 Aussie Open.
He was a huge reason why Federer won Olympic Gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics (in doubles), and helped Switzerland win the Davis Cup in 2014.
I remember when he won his first major title. I was a sophomore in college, studying abroad in Leeds. My residency was in Kirkstall, a suburb. I woke up very early (or stayed up late) to watch Wawrinka defeat an injured Rafael Nadal in four sets. At the time it seemed like a fluke, but then he backed it up with two more major titles at the French Open in 2015 and the US Open a year later.
He will now take the court against Matteo Berettini, a former Wimbledon finalist whose career has been beset by injuries. It’s a popcorn match. If he wins (and it’s a big if), he’ll likely face Djokovic in the second round – the man he defeated in the 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open.
It’s always a strange feeling when someone like this exits the sport. A serious bulk of my tennis life was shaped by Wawrinka. And I know in a week or so there will be a post-Wawrinka tennis universe that I will have to navigate. It’s a part of sport that I have yet to fully understand.
Of course I can dream about Wawrinka and Djokovic and Harry Kane and Moussa Dembele, but when I wake up it’s Flavio Cobolli and Sandro Tonali and Savio. The pleasure with club sport is Tottenham Hotspur remain. In tennis, the players leave. OK sure maybe they show up in a player’s box, but even Juan Carlos Ferrero doesn’t last forever.
The reality is, when a tennis player reties. It’s over. It’s done. And we have to live with the tour. We have to ride the wave, or else risk drowning in it.
GO GET EM STANISLAS WAWRINKA BABY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fitzie’s track of the day: This Will Be Our Year, by The Zombies
And now for your links:
Alasdair Gold: “Tottenham make key stadium change and the reason De Zerbi is so excited about Savio and Marmoush”
BBC: “’Mortified’ McInnes takes responsibility for Rangers’ European exit”
The Atheltic ($$): “Andoni Iraola on Cody Gakpo’s Liverpool future: ‘You cannot guarantee anything’”
Sports Illustrated: “Stan Wawrinka’s Final Grand Slam Could Be the 2026 US Open”
