Stan Wawrinka to retire at end of 2026 after US Open wildcard snub
Stan Wawrinka, the three-time Grand Slam champion from Switzerland, will retire at the end of 2026 — but he will not get the farewell at Flushing Meadows he might have wanted.
Wawrinka, now 41, confirmed on 25 August that he plans to step away from professional tennis at the close of the season. The 2026 US Open, which begins next week, would have been a natural place to say goodbye: Wawrinka won the title there in 2016, beating Novak Djokovic in the final. Instead, tournament organisers declined to offer him a wildcard — the discretionary invitation that allows a player into the main draw without needing to qualify on ranking — a decision that has drawn criticism from fans and pundits alike (BBC Sport).
The other three majors took a different approach. Wawrinka was awarded wildcards for the 2026 Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, each tournament giving the Swiss veteran a place in their main draws as a nod to his achievements and stature in the game.
The results did not go his way. He reached the third round in Melbourne — a respectable run for a player in his forties — but fell in the first round at both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon. His final French Open match was a four-set defeat, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to the Dutchman Jesper De Jong, played in front of a packed and vocal crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen (The Guardian).
Wawrinka did not enter US Open qualifying, despite his ranking placing him inside the qualifying cut-off — the threshold that determines which players are eligible to compete for a spot in the main draw. Rather than fight through the qualifying rounds, he posted a farewell message to the US Open on social media after the wildcard decision was made public (tennishead.net).
The US Open's wildcard choices this year have leaned into spectacle as much as merit. The mixed doubles wildcards went to two eye-catching pairings: Serena Williams alongside Carlos Alcaraz, and Emma Navarro with Tommy Paul — a mix of cross-generational star power and homegrown American talent (US Open). The men's and women's singles draws will be revealed on Thursday, 28 August.
For tennis fans, the sting is in the detail. Wawrinka is one of only a handful of men to have won Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces — hard, clay and grass. His 2016 US Open triumph, secured with a devastating one-handed backhand that remains one of the great shots in the sport, is part of the tournament's own story. That Flushing Meadows chose not to make room for his farewell is a decision that will sit awkwardly with many who follow the game.
Still, Wawrinka's career needs no final-week validation. Three Slam titles, an Olympic doubles gold, a Davis Cup crown and a decade inside the world's top five — the résumé is complete. The remaining weeks of 2026, wherever they are played, are a victory lap, not a audition.
