‘Not young any more’ – Wawrinka, 40, battles into second round

Stan Wawrinka won his first Grand Slam title 20 years ago, and he made his main-draw Australian Open debut there 12 years later.

He admits to himself that he is “not young any more.”

The 40-year-old has shortened his farewell tour to Melbourne after defeating Laslo Djere from Serbia in four sets in the first round.

Wildcard Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of the 2026 season, battled against Djere, the 92nd-ranked player, for three hours and 20 minutes.

The Swiss won the fourth set 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), and then came back from a break down in the third set to win.

Wawrinka won the Australian Open for the first time in five years, and he won for the first time since 2024 at Wimbledon.

Wawrinka, who is 40 years and 296 days old, is the second-oldest player to win a men’s singles match at Melbourne Park, trailing only Ivo Karlovic (40 years and 326 days) in 2020.

Wawrinka made it clear that he is not just in Melbourne to say goodbye, despite bringing the curtain down on his “long journey” in professional tennis.

My final year, I said. He claimed that although the passion is still present, he is no longer a child.

“Today was amazing, it’s so special for me to enter the court and enter a Grand Slam.

” It’s the reason I practise hard with my team every off-season and every day, to have a chance to compete with the best players in the world.

“I’m a competitor so I’m always going to fight. Hopefully I’m going to play another good match”.

World number 139 Wawrinka, having received vocal support throughout the match, celebrated by pointing to all four corners of the Show Court Arena to encourage even more noise.

“Only at the end of the match, I started to think a little bit and I got too much emotion about maybe what could happen”, Wawrinka added.

Cilic’s first-round match was in stark contrast to Wawrinka’s, with the 2018 finalist beating Altmaier 6-0 6-0 7-6 (6-3).

After rattling through the opening two sets in just 50 minutes and winning 13 consecutive games, the big-serving Croat was on course for a rare “triple bagel” – a feat which has only been achieved by five players in the main draw of a Grand Slam in the professional era.

Spain’s Sergi Bruguera was the last player to do so, beating Thierry Champion 6-0 6-0 6-0 in the 1993 French Open second round.

However, Altmaier finally got on the scoreboard for 1-1 in the third and went on to force a tie-break, with Cilic coming from 2-0 down to seal his first win in Melbourne since 2022.