The US Open wildcards have been dished out and, surprisingly, Stan Wawrinka is yet to receive one in his final year as an active tennis player.
The Swiss star will retire at the end of the year and he has been on a whistlestop tour of some of his old haunts across the 2026 ATP Tour season.
Wawrinka has received wildcards into some very high-profile events in 2026, including the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon, but the US Open are yet to follow suit.
Instead, Gael Monfils, Michael Zheng, Martin Damm, Jack Kennedy, Sebastian Gorzny, J.J Wolf, and Alexei Popyrin have received access into the US Open main draw.
While there is one more spot up for grabs for Wawrinka to claim, the three-time Grand Slam champion has issued the perfect response to missing out on the first wave of wildcards.
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Not one to rest on his laurels, Wawrinka is instead competing at the ATP 125 event in Cancun and he picked up his first victory since June to earn a place in the second round.
Wawrinka won a two and a half hour clash against defending champion Dalibor Svrcina to claim the victory in a nail-bitting straight sets match that needed two tie-breaks.
The Swiss star will play one of the biggest breakout stars of Wimbledon, Roman Safiullin, in the next round of the event as he continues to stake his claim for a US Open wildcard.
Safiullin defeated Andrey Rublev, Botic van de Zandschulp, and Joao Fonseca to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon, before he was beaten by Novak Djokovic.
He will provide a tough test for Wawrinka, but no matter what happens with the three-time Grand Slam champion, he should receive a US Open wildcard.
The star is a former champion of the US Open, having lifted the title at the 2026 event, after beating Juan Martin del Potro, Kei Nishikori, and Djokovic back-to-back to win the Grand Slam.
Wawrinka also reached the semi finals of the Flushing Meadows event a further two times, and he also has two other quarter finals to his name at the US Open.
He holds a 74% winning rate at the Grand Slam, which makes the US Open his best-performing major, so he’s often played his best tennis at the New York event.
If that’s not enough to earn a wildcard into your final-ever US Open, then absolutely nothing is. But the three time Grand Slam champion is certainly the favourite to claim the final remaning spot.
