It is 20 years since Stan Wawrinka made his main-draw debut at the Australian Open, and 12 years since he beat Rafael Nadal there to win his first Grand Slam title.
He is, by his own admission, “not young any more”.
But after coming through a “big battle” to down Serbia’s Laslo Djere in four sets in the first round, the 40-year-old has prolonged the Melbourne leg of his farewell tour.
Wildcard Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of the 2026 season, was on court for three hours and 20 minutes against Djere, the world number 92.
The Swiss fought back from losing the first set and came back from a break down in the fourth to win 5-7 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4).
And after the first half of day two was dominated by injury retirements, the second half belonged to the veterans, with 37-year-old Marin Cilic beating Germany’s Daniel Altmaier to join Wawrinka in the second round.
For Wawrinka, Monday’s victory was his first at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2024 and his first at the Australian Open for five years.
At 40 years and 296 days, Wawrinka is the second oldest player to win a men’s singles match at Melbourne Park, bettered only by Ivo Karlovic (40 years and 326 days) in 2020.
But although he is bringing the curtain down on his “long journey” in professional tennis, Wawrinka made it clear that he is not in Melbourne just to say goodbye.
“It is my last year. The passion is still intact but I’m not young any more,” he said.
“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.
“It was a big battle and I’m happy to win.”
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.
Cilic’s reward is a second-round meeting with Canadian 21st seed Denis Shapovalov while Wawrinka will meet either 17th seed Jiri Lehecka or French qualifier Arthur Gea.
