Stan Wawrinka About

The one-handed backhand that beat three No. 1s, still swinging at 41

Wawrinka was born in Lausanne and turned professional in 2002 at 17, taking the junior title at Roland Garros the following year and then spending most of a decade as the other Swiss. The credentials came in odd order: Olympic doubles gold with Roger Federer in Beijing in 2008, a Davis Cup for Switzerland in 2014, and a first major at 28, by which point the file on him was largely written.

The one-handed backhand is the whole identity — flat, heavy, taken on the rise from a full turn, and ranked by Patrick Mouratoglou as the best the game has produced. It pairs with a first-strike serve and almost no appetite for defense, so the margins are thin by design; across his record since 2017 he has held 80 percent of service games with a winners-to-errors ratio just under even.

The peak was three Grand Slam titles, each won over the reigning No. 1: the 2014 Australian Open against Rafael Nadal, then the 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open against Novak Djokovic. Sixteen tour titles, a Monte Carlo Masters in 2014, a career high of ATP No. 3 in January 2014, and knee and foot surgery that took the rest. The last real rebound came in 2023, a 14-12 year built on beating then-No. 8 Holger Rune at Indian Wells and then-No. 10 Frances Tiafoe in Cincinnati.

As of September 2026 he is 41, ATP No. 127 and 6-12 on the year. He beat Djere and Gea to make the Australian Open third round at 40, per ATP's bio the oldest man there since Rosewall in 1978, and pushed Matteo Berrettini to four tiebreak sets at Wimbledon, one of them 18-16. The serve is intact — 75 percent of first-serve points won — the rest is arithmetic.

Stan Wawrinka at a glance

Stan Wawrinka is 41 years old; was born in Lausanne, Switzerland; lives in Monte Carlo, Monaco; stands 1.83 m; plays right-handed; and is ranked No. 142 in the ATP rankings.