In the first week of the final year of his life as a professional tennis player, Stanislas “Stan” Wawrinka found himself in the familiar position of staring down an opponent nearly half his age. Wawrinka, now 40, had tussled with the talented 23-year-old Flavio Cobolli for nearly three hours before offering himself a shot at a monumental victory.
Just a few tense errors deep in a tense final set tie-break saw those chances slip away. In theory, deciding that 2026 will be the final year of his career should provide Wawrinka with an opportunity to swing for the fences and completely empty his tank, playing without inhibitions. Life, however, is far more complicated than that. “Of course I would love to play more freely. And sometimes I tell myself: ‘Just play freely,’” sighs a frustrated Wawrinka. “But I care so much that it’s not that easy.”
