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40-0: Wawrinkka remembers the path traveled on your birthday

The Swiss turns 40 this March 28

March 28, 2025

If Stan Wawrinka celebrates his 40th birthday today with a lively party, it will be difficult to overcome the great night he lived after winning his first Grand Slam title in the Australian Open of 2014. After making the leap to a major at age 28, the Swiss star closed a Melbourne bar and remained there until dawn.

“After the final of a Grand Slam, if you are not going to celebrate at that time, you will not do it in your entire career,” said Wawrinka recently in the Podcast Nothing Major. “We had a great party. We closed the bar. I remember that they had to close it from the inside because they did not allow us to stay longer.”

The three -time Grand Slam champion was a luxury guest in the program presented by the former American tennis stakes John Isner, Steve Johnson, Jack Sock and Sam Querrey. As the name of the podcast suggests, none of them four managed to win an individual title of a major. Therefore, medium jokingly, they promised to exclude the individual champions of Grand Slam as guests. But half an hour with Wawrinka was too good to let it pass.

Before his 40th birthday, on March 28, Wawrinka reviewed some of his best tenistic moments and also shared what motivates him in the ATP Tour, sincere in a pleasant conversation with his former colleagues.

Wawrinka never hopes to win any tournament in which he participates – “until I play a final, I don’t see myself winning any tournament,” he said – but believes he can succeed in any game he plays. He did so at the Australia Open of 2014, when he beat Novak Djokovic in rooms and Rafael Nadal in the final to win his first title in Majors.

Faithful to his reputation as a player of great games, Wawrinka explained how he was completely concentrated before the definitive round against the Spanish.

“For me it was much easier than the semifinal. Honestly, I felt at my best,” Wawrinka explained. “I was very excited, in a good way. I was nothing nervous. I knew I was playing my best tennis … if I lose the final against Rafa, even so it will be an incredible tournament.”

But Wawrinka admitted that the nerves did appear when realizing how close the glory. In a 6-3 victory, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, Nadal threatened to overcome despite a back injury, before Wawrinka was repurified to close the transcendental victory.

Stan Wawrinka defeated Rafael Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open final to win his first Grand Slam title.” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/2024-images/news/2025/03/13/23/22/wawrinka-40-feature-march-2025-australian-open-final-trophy.jpg” style=”width: 100%;”>
^{Stan Wawrinka beat Rafael Nadal in 2014 in the Australian Open final. Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP via getty images.}

“I started being nervous during the game when Rafa began to have back problems. At that time I looked to my right, I saw the trophy and thought: ‘Oh, maybe I can bring it home.’ So that’s when I started being nervous, but before the game I was simply enjoying the moment.”

After the title and the subsequent party in Melbourne, Wawrinka took advantage of that impulse to win his first (and to date, unique) Title ATP Masters 1000 in Montecarlo, defeating Roger Federer in a final to three sets. His victory against his good friend and Swiss compatriot allowed him to add victories against each of the three greats during the first four months of the 2014 season. Although he did not resume his rivalry Lexus ATP Head2head with Andy Murray that year, at his best, Wawrinka was sometimes cataloged as part of one of the five greats along with that quartet.

The Swiss was distanced from that elite group: “I think it bothers me that they say the big five or that they put me close to Andy Murray just because he won three Grand Slams and I have three,” Wawrinka said. “He has 14 Masters 1000 and has been in the Top 10 for many years and in the Top 5. So, in my opinion, I am completely away from them. I am light years from what they achieved and I think it is a bit disrespectful for them, and especially for Andy, because that was spoken more frequently.”

While praised. Murray for his longevity in the elite, Wawrinka did not hesitate to point out which of the four greats it was more difficult to play, and where. As expected, he highlighted Nadal in Roland Garros, where a constant diet of high balls against his setback was impossible to counteract.

“You feel that it attacks you in each ball,” said Wawrinka, who suffered two defeats 6-2, 6-3 and 6-1 against the Spanish in the quarterfinals of 2013 and the final of 2017. “You do not see any option to score winning shots or to get it out of the track.”

Wawrinka’s victory over Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open final was his only victory in a Grand Slam in his series Lexus ATP Head2head. His only Majors victory against Federer arrived in sets in a row in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros in 2015, after which he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Djokovic in four sets to win his second Grand Slam title. Wawrinka beat Djokovic again at the US Open 2016, after saving a party point against Daniel Evans at the beginning of that same fortnight in New York.

Stan Wawrinka defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2015 Roland Open final.” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/2024-images/news/2025/03/13/23/27/wawrinka-40-feature-march-2025-roland-garros-final-trophy.jpg” style=”width: 100%;”>
^{Stan Wawrinka beat Novak Djokovic in 2015 in the Roland Garros final. Photo: Patrick Kovarik/AFP via getty images.}

With Nadal, Federer. Murray retired, Wawrinkka and Djokovic are still the leaders of their generation. For Wawrinka, although the constant trips demanded by the ATP Tour have become more difficult with age, their joy for the competition and for overcoming themselves on the field of matches and training has never vanished.

“I know that the day I stop, there will be no return. So I want to make the most of it, that sure,” Wawrinka said. “Will it be a few months, a year or two?

With 16 circuit titles and a 578-367 record, Wawrinka knows better than anyone the necessary level to compete in the ATP Tour. After reaching the number 3 of the PIF ATP Rankings in 2014, its best personal brand, this year has been outside the Top 150. However, with a victory against a Top 10 against Andrey Rublev last October, the way to the semifinals of Stockholm, the Swiss showed that it still has what is necessary to overcome the best.

Editor’s note: The use of extensive dating from the Podcast Nothing Major was approved by the executive producer.