Stan Wawrinka battled on court for more than three hours before clinching a dramatic win over France’s Arthur Rinderknech at the United Cup on Saturday.
Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of the year, rolled back the years to claim a hard-fought 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), victory. The three-time Grand Slam champion came back from a break down during the final set before then recovering from a 2-4 deficit in the decisive tiebreaker.
The 40-year-old has become only the fifth man in the Open Era to have won a Tour-level match in 23 different seasons after Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, Richard Gasquet and Rafael Nadal. Later this month, Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils could join this list.
“I’d have loved a quicker win, but no, this is why I keep playing. I’m passionate about the game. I’m always going to push my own limit,” the Reuters News Agency quoted Wawrinka as saying.
“I’ve said I’ve been working hard this off-season. Even if it’s my last year, I don’t just want to play. I want to play to compete and try to win.
“I’m super happy with the performance today, with the win. It was a tough fight, big fight, but I stayed quite positive and really focused on my own discipline during the game.
“I try to find solutions, find the better way of playing. When I got the opportunity to finish, I went for it.”
Wawrinka’s triumph coincides with Switzerland’s dominating 3-0 win over France in the mixed team event. Belinda Bencic got her country off to a winning start by beating Léolia Jeanjean 6-2, 6-4. Then, in the mixed doubles, Bencic returned to the court to play alongside Jakub Paul, where they ousted Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah and Édouard Roger-Vasselin in a close encounter.
“The last game was tricky with the Australian sun,” Bencic said after beating Jeanjean. “I think this is really one of the only places — to play in Australia — where you get into this situation. So I should have done better somehow. So I’m gonna find some solutions next time.”
Fritz stunned
Elsewhere, Taylor Fritz suffered a disappointing start to his season after losing to Sebastian Baez despite leading the match by a set and a break. The world No.6 fell 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, to the Argentine whom he had beaten five consecutive times before their latest meeting.
Fritz’s frustration boiled over immediately after the final point when he snapped his racket over his leg before giving it to a member of the crowd. In contrast, Baez was delighted with claiming only his second win over a top 10 player in his career.
“Wow, I’m so happy right now,” Baez said.
“We are searching for this feeling for many years. Taylor beat me many, many times, so I’m happy to take one.”
The timing of Fritz’s loss occurred a day after he shed light on an ongoing knee issue, which he has been trying to address during the off-season. In recent months, the American has been suffering from inflammation of the tendon (tendonitis).
“The demands of playing make it a lot harder to get rid of it, but at the same time I don’t really want to go full stop for four months to try to get it better when I feel like I can sometimes play through it,” he said.
“Sometimes it gets too bad to play through, but that was really the focus of the six weeks (off-season), just doing a lot of rehab and strengthening, and trying to lay out a base where I can maybe start to get it better.
“Maybe a couple of months into the season I can be over it.”
It isn’t all bad news for Team USA after Coco Gauff thrashed Solana 6-1, 6-1, to put their tie with Argentina level at 1-1.
