Stan Wawrinka rolled back the years on Thursday as he defeated Arthur Gea to reach the Australian Open third round.
The 40-year-old contested the 49th five-set match of his career, defeating the young Frenchman 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6.
The Swiss maestro, who is a wildcard entry at the event, will play ninth seed Taylor Fritz in the Australian Open third round.
It was a simply magnificent performance by the 2014 Australian Open champion, who is set to retire from his playing career at the end of this year.
Wawrinka is one of the most senior players on the ATP Tour, yet he was able to achieve a feat not witnessed in Australia for almost half a century.
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Australian Open organisers will certainly be pleased by the progress of Wawrinka, who continues to make history in the sport.
Wawrinka is the first player aged over 40 to reach the Australian Open third round since Ken Rosewall in 1978.
Rosewall, then aged 44 years, defeated Cary Stansbury and Sherwood Stewart at the 1978 tournament, before losing to Austrian player Peter Feigl, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 10-8.
Wawrinka also made more recent history on Thursday: he and Gea contested the longest match of the 2026 Australian Open so far, at four hours and 30 minutes.
As mentioned already, Wawrinka will play Taylor Fritz in the third round. Fritz, who defeated Vit Kopriva on Thursday, has a losing record against Wawrinka.
Wawrinka leads their head-to-head matchup 2-1, having secured victories against the American at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships and 2018 Japan Open.
Fritz won their last contest at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters: 7-6, 6-2.
Stan Wawrinka reacts to his victory
Speaking to Mats Wilander after the contest, Wawrinka commented on his physical state while also paying tribute to the crowd.
He said: “Exhausted [laughing]. As I told you, it’s my last Australian Open so I’m trying to last as long as possible.”
“Not only I had fun but you [the crowd] gave me so much energy. I am not young anymore so I need your energy, I need extra Australian energy from you.
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“It’s amazing feeling to be on this court, to have so much noise, so much support. It was a long match [laughing], I don’t know how I’m going to recover but I’m super happy.”
Wilander then asked the Swiss player: “Is this as good as you’ve ever hit your backhand?”
“Unfortunately not! (laughing) I wish it was,” Wawrinka replied. “Gave me few points today, gave me few miss too, but yeah I’m always going to fight, I’m always going to leave everything on the court. I’m always trying my best to try to push myself and again thank you so much for being here.”
Speaking about his plans for after the match, Wawrinka added: “No idea. But I think at the beginning [member of crowd] you dropped a beer, so maybe I’m going to pick up a beer. I deserve one.”
