Wawrinka Has No Plans To Retire And Wants To Continue 'Living The Dream'
ATP
Stan Wawrinka has delighted tennis fans by confirming he will not retire next year, and the Swiss player is confident of playing very well in 2025.
Although Wawrinka's willingness to compete at the age of 39 is admirable regardless of results, the three-time Grand Slam champion had slipped outside the Top 200 after the Asian swing.
Wawrinka's time in Asia included an incredible umpiring mistake in his match at the Shanghai Masters. With the veteran serving at 0-1 in the deciding set, Carlos Bernardes wrongly called the score as 0-30, when it should have been 15-15.
Surprisingly, neither player noticed the mistake, and Cobolli subsequently broke for the only time in the match, going on to win the contest 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 after an entertaining battle.
Although his ranking had plummeted before the start of the European indoor hardcourt season, competing that well against a player as good as Cobolli proved that the 2015 French Open winner can still play great tennis.
Wawrinka produced even better evidence of that at the Stockholm Open last week. He overcame Brandon Nakashima, who defeated US Open runner-up Taylor Fritz earlier this season, and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to reach the quarterfinal.
That was followed by an even more impressive triumph against the No. 1 seed, Andrey Rublev, to progress to the semifinal. The eventual champion, Tommy Paul, ended his superb run at that stage.
Despite his age, Wawrinka also played at the ongoing Swiss Indoors in Basel, his home event. He won a three-set battle against Adrian Mannarino in the opening round, but Ben Shelton's serving proved too much in the round of 16.
Any fears about that being Wawrinka's final appearance at his home tournament have been put to rest. The Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger quoted the player discussing his plans to continue in 2025.
"It was always my plan to continue. The way I feel, tennis-wise and physically, how well I train, the level of play I reach. But of course, there is also the reality of the results and the world rankings."
"If I no longer have the opportunity to play in the big tournaments and the ones I usually enjoy, that could affect my motivation. So far that hasn’t been the case."
Wawrinka also said he does not want to rely on wild cards to enter tournaments and is determined to improve his ranking so he can play at events freely.
"Of course, it’s not my goal to play forever thanks to wildcards. It’s clear that I have to do everything I can to get back up the rankings. Now it’s up to me to do the right thing on the court to improve my rankings and have the opportunity to choose the tournaments that I enjoy. But my passion for tennis is undiminished."
The Swiss legend acknowledges that reaching the Top 10 again is not a realistic goal, but he still believes he has what it takes to compete well next year on the ATP Tour.
"I am convinced that I still have what it takes to play very well next year. That doesn’t mean that I will be in the top 10 again. But the way I have played and felt in the last few weeks spurs me on to keep pushing myself. Even when I lost, I played strongly. I am still living the dream that I had as a little boy. I see no reason why I should stop."
