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Stan Wawrinka Is on His Best Australian Open Run Since 2017

The 40-year old will now face world No. 9 Taylor Fritz on Friday.
Takashi Williams|
Stan Wawrinka celebrates at the 2026 Australian Open.
Stan Wawrinka celebrates at the 2026 Australian Open. | IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

Theatrics were brewing at ANZ Arena for the second match of Stan Wawrinka's farewell tour in Melbourne.

The 2014 Australian Open champion, who is usually a cool customer, uncharacteristically engaged with the crowd throughout the match. From attempting to drink a fan's dropped beer to yelling at the crowd prior to the start of service games. Wawrinka displayed a buoyancy that his more than two decades younger competitor failed to match, to give him the win, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3).

"Thank you so much for the support, for the energy that you bring on court. It's really special for me, it helped me get through those long matches," Wawrinka said in his post-match interview. "I'm 40 years old but still fighting after four hours because of you."

In the fourth set of the epic match, Gea was serving to send the set into a tiebreak, and ultimately shut the door on Wawrinka's fairytale run so far in the tournament.

After finding himself down 30-40, the Swiss man showed his quality yet again with a vintage down-the-line backhand that led to the crowd instantly erupting at its brilliance. The point resulted in Wawrinka securing the most five-set matches played in Open Era history, over the likes of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

Interview: Stan Wawrinka opens up on his timeless grind.

Surprisingly enough, Wawrinka was healthier than Gea, who took a medical time-out and proceeded to start cramping in the fifth-set 10-point tie-break.

And as Gea started to go all-in, with flat forehands spraying around the court while being unable to properly move, Wawrinka displayed his experience by batting away any attempts at remaining in the match, and securing his ticket to the third round of the 2025 Australian Open and becoming the first 40-year-old in almost five decades to do so.

The 2026 Australian Open runs through January 31 for the women and February 1 for the men. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's Serve On SI for all of your tennis news from the court and beyond.

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Takashi Williams
TAKASHI WILLIAMS

Takashi Williams is a journalist and recent graduate of Columbia University. He is passionate about exploring the intersections of sports, race, and politics, and spent the past four years covering 2024 National Champion Michael Zheng as well as the Columbia men’s and women’s tennis teams for the Columbia Daily Spectator. A New York City native, he has also written for The Nation and Hudson River Blue, and completed an award-winning senior thesis examining the presence of misogynoir on the women’s tennis circuit.

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