On the eve of starting his final tournament, Stan Wawrinka’s career was celebrated in a special presentation hosted at the Swiss Indoors on Monday evening.
The 41-year-old is retiring this week in Basel after spending more than two decades on the Tour. Wawrinka was one of the few players to win multiple majors during the Big Three era, triumphing at the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 Roland Garros and 2016 US Open. In total, he has won 16 titles during his career and currently has 590 Tour-level wins to his name going into this week.
Making his record-equalling 19th main draw appearance in Basel, Wawrinka attended a ceremony to celebrate his contribution to the sport. Among those to pay tribute to him was tournament director Roger Brennwald.
“This year, a few tears will be shed along the way. Basel is paying tribute to a tennis legend who, through perseverance and courage over the course of his career, has become the Sylvester Stallone of tennis,” said Brennwald.
The stadium screen showed a video of others paying tribute to Wawrinka. Among those were Novak Djokovic (who Wawrinka beat twice in a Grand Slam final) and Roger Federer.
“You are one of the most passionate tennis players I have ever met. I have enormous respect and admiration for you as a person, but also for what you have achieved and what you continue to accomplish,” said Djokovic, who is also playing in Basel this year.
Federer, who won the 2008 Olympic doubles title with Wawrinka, spoke about their ‘wonderful’ time together in the sport.
“From the bottom of my heart, congratulations on your incredible career. It’s unbelievable what you’ve achieved. It’s wonderful that we were able to experience so much together. (…) Thank you so much. These are things I will never forget, and I hope you won’t either, of course,” Federer commented.
Throughout his career, Wawrinka has recorded 63 wins over top-10 players, five of them against world No. 1s. Ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, he has defeated Djokovic, Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal at Grand Slam events. Something that has only been done by two other players – Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Earlier this year he reached the third round of the Australian Open, becoming the oldest man to do so since 1978.
Wawrinka starts his Swiss Indoors farewell on Tuesday against world No.21 Jiri Lehecka. He is 1-11 against top 50 players in 2026 and is bidding to reach the second round in Basel for the 10th time in his career.
