Record-breaking Stan Wawrinka extends remarkable final Australian Open run

Record-breaking Stan Wawrinka battled through a five-set epic to reach the third round and extend his final Australian Open by another match.

The 40-year-old wildcard, who will be retiring at the end of the season, defeated the French qualifier Arthur Gea 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-3) in four hours and 33 minutes - the longest match of the tournament so far. He became the second-oldest man to win a match at the Australian Open since it moved to Melbourne Park with a three-hour, 19-minute battle over Laslo Djere on Monday.

The Swiss, a three-time grand slam champion and former Australian Open winner, went the full distance, requiring a match tiebreak to defeat Gea on a raucous Kia Arena. According to Opta, it was the 49th five-set match of Wawrinka’s career at the grand slams, which moves him past compatriot Roger Federer for the most in the Open era.

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He is also the oldest man to reach the third round of the Australian Open since the great Ken Rosewell in 1978, when he was 43.

“I’m exhausted!” Wawrinka told the crowd after his marathon effort. “As I told you, it's my last Australian Open, so I'm trying to last as long as possible. Not only I have fun, but also you gave me so much energy. I'm not young anymore, so I need your energy. It's an amazing feeling to be on this court, to have so much noise, so much support. I mean, I don't know how I'm gonna recover, but I'm super happy.”

Wawrinka required a wildcard to enter the Australian Open main draw, with his ranking down at 139th in the world before the tournament. “I'm always gonna fight,” he said. “I'm always gonna leave everything on the court, always trying my best or trying to push myself and again, thank you so much for being here.”

Asked how he was going to recover for his third-round match, against the ninth seed Taylor Fritz on Saturday, Wawrinka turned to an individual from the boisterous crowd and replied: “No idea, but I think at the beginning you dropped a beer [onto the court], so maybe I'm gonna pick up a beer, I deserve one.”

Wawrinka forced the fifth set with a trademark one-handed backhand winner down the line, a shot that had the Kia Arena on its feet after the former world No 3 found himself two sets to one down. In a wild fifth set, both players had multiple chances to break, while Gea, ranked 198, required timeouts for medical treatment and to fix a broken shoe.

The drama continued into the fifth-set tiebreak as the 21-year-old Gea, making his Australian Open debut, began to cramp. After Wawrinka won a 21-shot rally to establish control of the tiebreak, Gea doubled-over in cramp before serving. Wawrinka then produced a miraculous lob from behind the baseline, which finally broke Gea’s resistance.

Wawrinka announced in December that the 2026 season would be his last, as he promised “one last push”. In his prime, Wawrinka competed against the dominance of Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal but found a way to break through and win three major titles at the Australian Open, French Open and US Open, the first of which came at the age of 28.

He did so while beating legends of the sport. At the 2014 Australian Open, he found a way to end Djokovic’s 25-match winning streak in Melbourne before beating the No 1-ranked Nadal in the final. At the 2015 French Open, he denied Djokovic what would have been a first Roland Garros title, having also beaten Federer in the quarter-finals. His 2016 US Open title also saw Wawrinka defeat Djokovic in the final.

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Wawrinka also teamed up with Federer to win gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, as well as in winning the 2014 Davis Cup for Switzerland. In total, Wawrinka has won 16 career titles - the last of which came at the Geneva Open in May 2017. He underwent two left knee surgeries in August 2017, causing him to end his run of 50 consecutive grand slam appearance, but has continued to play for the love of the game while being open with the fact that his best days are long behind him.

“I wish it would feel the same, the same power and everything,” Wawrinka said after his first-round win. “No, I don't try to feel the same as 10 years or more ago. I always been honest with myself, knowing where I am, what's my ability, what I can do, what I can still achieve, the way I can still play. I try to use that on court every matches.

“I know I'm not as good as I was before. I know I'm not physical and tennis-wise as I was before. That's normal. I'm getting old. But I'm still happy with what I'm doing, always trying to push my own limit, always trying to be better. I'm happy that I had the chance to win match in slams here.”

Wawrinka’s win added to another vintage day for the older guard in Melbourne, with Djokovic, 38, and former US Open champion Maric Cilic, 37, also advancing to the third round.

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Djokovic is now one win short of his 400th at the grand slams after his 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Francesco Maestrelli, and will next face Botic Van de Zandschulp for the chance to make history and become the first player to reach the milestone.

“When I have more time, then I obviously try to look at my game and different elements that I can really improve. Otherwise, what’s the point?” Djokovic said. “That’s the kind of mentality I try to nurture. It’s been allowing me to play at the highest level at this age.”

Cilic defeated the 21st seed Denis Shapovalov and the Croatian is still yet to drop a set. The 2014 US Open champion and 2018 Australian Open runner-up will next play 12th seed Casper Ruud.

“I think it's great,” Wawrinka said. “I saw Cilic winning. It's good to see him back. He got some injury last year, too. It's good to see him at the right level.

“Novak is in different league anyway. We never compare ourselves to him. He's always there. He's always going to be there as long as he's playing. It's always amazing the way he can push everybody.”