Stan Wawrinka’s Emotional US Open Farewell

Stan Wawrinka walked off Grandstand for the last time at a major with his eyes glistening, his heart thumping, and 8,000 people on their feet. A straight-sets defeat, yes. But nothing about this felt like a loss.

At 41, the three-time Grand Slam champion knew this was the end of his US Open story. The crowd knew it too. They packed every seat, queued early, leaned over railings just to catch a glimpse of a man who has spent two decades refusing to bow quietly to the sport’s giants.

He did not even know he would be here a few days ago.

A Wildcard, Almost Missed

Wawrinka’s farewell almost never happened. Initially passed over for a wildcard, the 2016 US Open champion was back in the Swiss mountains, his New York trip already over, when his phone rang on Wednesday. American Patrick Kypson had withdrawn. A spot had opened.

For a lesser figure, it might have been a footnote. For Wawrinka, it was an invitation to a final curtain call on a court that helped define his career.

He scrambled his plans, crossed the Atlantic again, and came back to Flushing Meadows one last time. The decision felt justified the moment Grandstand began to fill. This was not a routine early-round match. It was a pilgrimage.

Berrettini Ends the Run, But Not the Story

On the other side of the net stood Matteo Berrettini, the 2021 Wimbledon finalist, younger, fresher, and ruthless when it mattered. The Italian did what professional sport demands: he shut out the sentiment and closed the door.

Wawrinka had his chances. He held a set point in the first set, then three more in the second. Each time, Berrettini stood firm, swatting away the danger and tightening his grip. Once he escaped those escapes, he surged through the third, the match tilting decisively his way.

The scoreboard will show a straight-sets defeat. It will not show the roars when Wawrinka uncorked that famous one-handed backhand, or the collective gasp when he pressed Berrettini to the brink, one more time, as if trying to freeze the clock.

A Champion’s Goodbye

When it ended, Berrettini stepped back and joined the applause. This was Wawrinka’s moment.

The Swiss lingered. He traced heart signs with his fingers. He pressed his hand to his chest. The crowd responded with a wall of noise that seemed to wrap around the court. He urged them on, asking for more, soaking in every second, before launching balls into the stands as souvenirs of a shared goodbye.

“One of the reasons I played until 41 was to live these moments,” he told them, voice heavy with emotion. He thanked the tournament for the late wildcard, called it “very important” to finish here, in the place where he lifted the trophy 10 years ago. The gratitude felt raw, unpolished, real.

Tournament chief executive Craig Tiley stepped forward with a photo montage of that 2016 triumph, a visual reminder of the night Wawrinka broke Novak Djokovic and completed the New York chapter of his remarkable late-blooming career.

Twenty Years of Fight

Wawrinka has always been celebrated for two things: that gorgeous, biting one-handed backhand and a competitive streak that refused to accept its assigned place in the hierarchy. In an era dominated by the sport’s holy trinity, he carved out three majors of his own — Australian Open 2014, Roland Garros 2015, US Open 2016 — through stubborn belief and heavy, fearless hitting.

After the ceremony, he spoke of being “super grateful” for the farewell he received. Then he went deeper, reflecting on what the ovation really meant to him.

It told him, he said, that he had done the right things for 20 years: always fighting, always showing up, always pushing himself to the limit. The fans’ response, the affection pouring down from the stands, was the confirmation he had been chasing all along.

“This is what for me was the most important thing – what I get from the fans when I play,” he said.

On Grandstand, those fans answered him with a send-off worthy of a champion who never stopped swinging, even when the odds, the age, and the era said he should.