Stan Wawrinka reveals he's 'mentally fatigued' after home defeat

October 25, 2023

ATP Tennis Players, Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments

Stan Wawrinka reveals he’s ‘mentally fatigued’ after home defeat

Stan Wawrinka has been knocked out in the first round of the ATP 500 event in Basel, with the Swiss revealing that he has been ‘very tired’ in recent weeks.

Wawrinka was defeated by qualifier Alexander Shevchenko, 3-6 6(8)-7, in a straight sets defeat in front of his home crowd.

Game Set Upset (now completed) ?

The qualifier Alexander Shevchenko takes out Wawrinka in Basel 6-3 7-6(8)❗️#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/jR4rF2LOYD

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 24, 2023

The 38-year-old has now lost six of his last eight matches and has put his recent dip in form down to tiredness, “I feel that for the past few weeks, I have been very tired. After Astana, there were two or three times when I wanted to work, but I couldn’t because I was too tired.

“I feel like I’m paying off for all the efforts I’ve made since returning from injury. I really wanted to get back to a certain level and I had to push myself as much as possible to do that.”

Wawrinka began the year ranked outside the top 100, but after reaching his first ATP final since 2019 has climbed back inside the top 50.

Thank you Umag ??❤️the amount of support I received all week made me feel at home ?? I will never take it for granted ??! #final #support #love #hardwork #trusttheprocess pic.twitter.com/rXZWUVKS4I

— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) August 1, 2023

And he has suggested that his recent efforts have caused fatigue both physically and mentally, “Overall, I’m playing complete matches and I’m not missing much to turn that into victories.

“It’s also been a year and a half that I’ve been pushing the machine to get back to the high level. I worked a lot to find this ranking and there is also a mental fatigue that accumulates which means that at times, I make the wrong choices.”

Wawrinka is the oldest player remaining in the top 100 and actually made his debut on the ATP Tour the same year that Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz was born.

However, the three-time major winner revealed that he still wants to continue playing, “At my age, there are several parameters that come into play. As long as I feel motivated and everything goes well like this year, I want to continue.”

Wawrinka added, “Now you have to know that it requires a lot of effort, more than in the past, more than you can see. These are daily sacrifices, which are compensated by the love I receive wherever I play. It remains to be seen how long I can last.”

Despite feeling fatigued, Wawrinka is still scheduled to play at the Paris Masters and the ATP 250 event in Metz to close out his 2023 season.

Inside the baseline…

Wawrinka has managed to play a lot of tennis this year, which will be very encouraging after his last few seasons have been disrupted due to injury. So much so that he has only played five less matches in the entirety of 2023, compared to 2020, 2021 and 2022 combined. Although his recent results have been less successful, it has to be seen as a positive year for the former No.3 and he still has two more tournaments to go.