Stan Wawrinka is bowing out of professional tennis the way he lived in it: on his own terms, with style, and surrounded by friends, announcing on Friday that he will host a farewell event on December 19 in Geneva, bringing the curtain down on a career that spanned more than two decades and produced three Grand Slam titles.<\/p>\n
The event, titled “One Last Backhand,” will feature an illustrious supporting cast. Fellow Swiss icon Roger Federer, British great Andy Murray, and French entertainer Ga\u00ebl Monfils are all confirmed to appear, turning what could have been a quiet retirement into a celebration befitting one of the sport’s most beloved figures.<\/p>\n
Wawrinka made the announcement on Instagram<\/a>, where he addressed his fans directly with characteristic warmth.<\/p>\n “Before leaving, I wanted to organise one last evening to thank you and say goodbye,” he said, framing the event not as a send-off for himself, but as an expression of gratitude toward those who followed him across his career.<\/p>\n At 41, the three-time Major champion has watched his ranking slip outside the Top 100, but the numbers never told the full story of what Wawrinka meant to tennis. He rose to a career-high World #3 ranking in 2014, but it is the quality of his biggest wins, not the consistency of his results, that defines his legacy.<\/p>\n In a sport dominated for over a decade by the so-called Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, Wawrinka carved out a remarkable niche as the man most capable of gatecrashing their party.<\/p>\n He claimed the Australian Open<\/a> in 2014, stunning Djokovic in the final in one of the great upset victories of the Open Era. A year later in Paris, he delivered arguably the finest performance of his career, dismantling a prime Djokovic at Roland Garros to win the French Open<\/a> title.<\/p>\n He completed his Major haul at Flushing Meadows in 2016, again defeating Djokovic in the US Open final, a result that underscored just how dangerous Wawrinka could be when he found his range on the biggest stages.<\/p>\n His weapons were always obvious: a ferocious single-handed backhand that many consider the cleanest in the history of the sport, combined with a baselining power game that could demolish any opponent on any surface on any given day. The inconsistency that kept him from challenging for year-end number one status was the same unpredictability that made him must-watch television.<\/p>\n Over more than 20 years on Tour, Stan Wawrinka collected 16 titles in total, a career that would represent an unqualified success for almost anyone, though it always felt as though the landmark Grand Slam wins were the true measure of the man.<\/p>\n “I’m lucky to be able to count on my friends, with whom I’ve shared so many great moments over the years,” he said of Federer, Monfils, and Murray–three players who collectively represent some of the richest chapters in modern tennis history.<\/p>\n Before the December farewell in Geneva, Wawrinka has one final chapter to write on the grass of the All England Club. He is set to play at Wimbledon next week, where organizers have granted him a wild card<\/a>, a fitting tribute from a tournament he reached the quarterfinals of twice during his career. It will be his last Wimbledon<\/a>, and in all likelihood his final appearance at a Grand Slam.<\/p>\n When December 19 arrives, and the lights go up at “One Last Backhand,” Geneva will say goodbye to one of Switzerland’s greatest sporting exports. The backhand will retire. The legacy will not.<\/p>\n Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stan Wawrinka is bowing out of professional tennis the way he lived in it: on his own terms, with style, and surrounded by friends, announcing on Friday that he will host a farewell event on December 19 in Geneva, bringing the curtain down on a career that spanned more than two decades and produced three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4883,"featured_media":81772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,9],"tags":[16,144,22,135,114,115],"class_list":["post-107427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-andy-murray","tag-gael-monfils","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-roger-federer","tag-stan-wawrinka"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107427"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107435,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107427\/revisions\/107435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}