Stan Wawrinka has had one of the quietest careers that has tasted high-end success. Many people outside of tennis know who Andy Murray is, for instance, but far fewer know of Wawrinka. Each player won three Grand Slams, though.
Wawrinka's weren't accidental either. He defeated Rafael Nadal in the final of the 2014 Australian Open, Novak Djokovic in the final of the 2015 French Open, and Djokovic again to win the 2016 US Open. That's impressive, and shouldn't be easily forgotten.
Wawrinka is now in the final days of his career, having announced that 2026 would be his last on the ATP tour. Each tournament he plays, he is saying goodbye to. That includes this week's Estoril Open in Portugal, where in the first round, the other Swiss great took on Roman Andres Burruchaga. The event also marked the last clay-court tournament Wawrinka would play as a professional.
Stan Wawrinka says goodbye to his clay-court career with a loss at the Estoril Open
The first set, however, wasn't pretty for either player. Wawrinka lost the set 4-6, but had just four winners and 18 unforced errors. His Argentinian opponent had only three winners and 17 unforced errors. The Swiss star landed less than 50 percent of his first serves, while Burruchaga landed only 53 percent.
The Portuguese crowd was behind Wawrinka, giving him the honor of their greatest appreciation, knowing his career was ending while Burruchaga was still struggling to find his ATP footing. No matter how much the crowd cheered Wawrinka, however, there was little they could do to improve his form.
He did begin to serve better in the second set, but so did Burruchaga. Both were close to 75 percent, landing their first serve midway through the set, but Wawrinka had to hope that the Argentinian would dip in form. Time was on the side of the 24-year-old Burruchaga and not the 41-year-old Wawrinka.
Both players had a dip in form after Wawrinka led 3-2. The Swiss player got a break to jump to 4-2, but gave the break right back with some unforced errors, and the set was back on serve. Thankfully for Wawrinka fans, only until the Swiss great was barely able to hold serve at 4-all but then got a break in the next game, and Wawrinka took the set 6-4.
The third and final set began disastrously for Stan Wawrinka, however. He was broken in the first and third games, the latter easily. Being down a break would have been bad enough, but being down two immediately likely doomed his hopes for a comeback.
In the end, Roman Andres Burruchaga won set three 6-3, despite a mini-comeback by the Swiss player. He will next face Nuno Borges in the round of 16.
For Wawrinka, he has played his last scheduled professional match on a clay court. Statistically, that has been his best surface, with a winning percentage of .622. He also won seven titles on clay.
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