On the tenth anniversary of winning the French Open, Stan Wawrinka admits his first round match on Monday might have been the last he played at the tournament.
The 40-year-old Swiss suffered a 7-6(6), 6-3, 6-2, loss to Great Britain’s Jacob Fearnley. A player currently ranked 83 places higher than him in the ATP rankings at 55th in the world. Wawrinka was making his 20th main draw appearance at Roland Garros, which is the tournament where he won his first Grand Slam match back in 2005. He won the title in 2015 by defeating Novak Djokovic before reaching his second final two years later when he lost to Rafael Nadal.
Wawrinka, who is the oldest player currently ranked inside the top 200, has refused to outline when he might potentially step away from the sport. Insisting that his passion for playing is still keeping him going. However, the former world No.3 admits he is not sure how much longer he will keep going.
“I think retirement from tennis is something extremely personal. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to handle that yet,” Wawrinka told reporters in Paris.
“There’s no guarantee that I will be back at the French Open next year. If I don’t win a few matches, if my results don’t get my ranking higher, then I will not come back whether as a wild card or anything else.”
So far this season, Wawrinka has won just two matches on the ATP Tour. However, he has enjoyed success on the lower-level Challenger circuit where he reached the final of a 175 event in Aix En Provence and the quarter-finals of a 125 in Naples. His biggest win during this period was against Alexi Popyrin, who was ranked 26th in the world at the time they met.
“I did everything I could to try to keep a really good level of play,” Wawrinka continued.
“I’m quite satisfied with what I’m still able to do physically and technically.
“You need to have results because I’m a competitor. Even if I enjoy it and I’m passionate, I play to win. Now it’s a little one-sided since the beginning of the year. I haven’t found the results yet.”
In the Open Era, only three men have made more main draw appearances at the French Open than Wawrinka. They are Richard Gasquet (22), Djokovic (21), and Feliciano Lopez (21).
