MELBOURNE, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka bowed out of his final Australian Open on Saturday, the three-times Grand Slam winner losing 7-6(5) 2-6 6-4 6-4 to American Taylor Fritz and soaking up warm applause as a much‑loved former champion.
The 40-year-old, who made his Grand Slam breakthrough in Melbourne by winning the 2014 title before adding trophies at the French Open and the U.S. Open in subsequent years, had announced that 2026 would be his farewell season.
After battling past Laslo Djere in his opener and edging a five-set marathon against a much-younger Arthur Gea in the last round, Wawrinka mounted another valiant effort but ran out of gas against Fritz on John Cain Arena.
Wawrinka shrugged off losing a tight opening set tiebreak and cruised through the next, only to surrender the third set before taking a medical timeout, after which he struggled at times to keep up the pressure.
Ninth seed Fritz edged in front in the fourth set and there was no stopping the 28-year-old, who withstood a barrage of late backhand missiles from Wawrinka to book a clash with Italian Lorenzo Musetti for a place in the quarter-finals.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in MelbourneEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
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