AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 16, 2026

Stan Wawrinka

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Stan, welcome back to Melbourne Park. I'm pretty sure it's going to be an emotional time for you playing here for the last time. Just tell us how the preparation has been going for you, including your wonderful run at the United Cup with Team Switzerland.

STAN WAWRINKA: Yeah, was great. So far so good in Australia. United Cup was an amazing event to play. Belinda was unbelievable. We had a great team. So was really good for us to make the final. Would love to win. But, yeah, we had so much fun there.

Tennis-wise I'm super happy. It's been going well. Had a good preparation, good off-season. Working hard to keep the level up. I'm looking forward to start it here.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Just on this will be your final year, I wonder how hard was it to come to that decision? How long did you think about it? What made you finally decide?

STAN WAWRINKA: Yeah, end of last year, between October, November, December, that I had things in my mind. I think during last year I didn't know. Like, I wanted to keep going, that's for sure. I was happy playing. And I'm still.

But I suddenly, end of last year, I find out that it was quite clear that next year should be my last year. It was not at all a hard decision. It was quite easy. I'm super happy with this decision. I'm in peace with that.

I'm looking forward for the year. One year of tennis, it's a lot of tennis, it's really long, and not getting younger. I'm also happy to try to play this year by being still competitive, by playing well. I didn't want to not know when I will stop to suddenly get injured or things like that or lose the level of the game.

I'm still passionate about the game. I'm still fully focused into it. That's the way I felt it was the right way.

Q. Stan, when you were coming in, Roger and Rafa were the dominant players. Now that you're going out, Carlos and Jannik are the dominant players. How do you compare those different eras, given you have a unique perspective having played around both of them in their primes?

STAN WAWRINKA: I don't compare. I don't compare generation. I enjoy them. I enjoy watching them. I enjoyed playing them, too.

I see that as a fan of tennis in general. The level has been amazing to watch those 20 years with different generation.

As a competitor, it's been amazing to face them. Always a big challenge. I think the level has been unbelievable with Sinner and Alcaraz last year. They're going to keep going into that direction.

As a fan of tennis, you can only enjoy that.

Q. In terms of what you've had to do in order to keep up and maintain being competitive, as you have been, as you've gotten older, what have you been able to change in your game in order to stay with the game's improvement?

STAN WAWRINKA: Yeah, I didn't stay much at the top the last few years (smiling). You know, I'm 130 in the world.

For me it was always about myself. Like, you of course have to face opponents. But at the end of the day, I always wanted to be the best version of a tennis player I could be.

It's always about pushing my own limits tennis-wise, physical part, mentally trying to really achieve the best I could.

Then you have to face different kind of player, different kind of generation. You don't focus on player you're going to face; you focus on myself.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your backhand. Early in your career when you were coming along, it always stood out as a really great shot. Did you enjoy having that single-handed backhand more in your younger days than your later days? Did you think of it as a burden at any point in your career?

STAN WAWRINKA: I did enjoy that shot, and that backhand gave me a lot of match. It help me a lot to achieve things I wanted to achieve.

For me, the passion of the game, the enjoyment of having one-handed backhand or not, was the same younger or later. At the end of the day, like I was saying, I always tried to push my own limit, trying to be the best version. Of course when you pass 30, 35, it became more difficult.

As long as you are honest with yourself and you know what you can achieve, where you want to go, the passion is still going to be there.

Q. I just want to know what are your thoughts about the ATP plan for the next years to reduce the amount of 250 tournaments, to prioritize the bigger events, like the new Masters in Saudi Arabia? Do you think tennis is going to lose something with that decision?

STAN WAWRINKA: I think we need to see what's going to really happen, because at the end, so far it's been more adding tennis than cutting. The calendar, it's been longer and bigger tournaments.

At the end you need to see the reality of it. So far the season is really long. Tournaments are really long. You have Masters 1000s getting longer, 10-day events. You final on Wednesday. You have one-round quallies. It's a bit, I would say, messy, the calendar.

It's also tough for the young generation to accept, to sacrifice some tournaments and probably some money at the end of the year for their health, for long-term career.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what is going to be the real decision and in which direction they're going to be taking.

Q. Stan, in the long arc of your career, when you came up we were coming out of this era of dominant American players. I remember you playing Brian Baker in the Roland Garros boys final. We've seen the shift to Europe over the last 20 to 25 years. I'm wondering, in your own experience, what accounts for that change over that time period, if you have any thoughts?

STAN WAWRINKA: I think when I arrive was already changing a bit. Just before I arrive was Andy Roddick No.1, then Roger took over, Novak and Rafa also.

Yeah, I think it's part of the sport. It depends a bit of the generation, the mentality. You always have some switch from Europe to Asia to America. I think right now you have some amazing American player, quite high in the ranking. There is a nice group of player to watch.

Yeah, I don't know how to explain that.