Three Grand Slam titles, one thunderous backhand and an emotional farewell in Basel: Stan Wawrinka's career closes with the warmth of a home crowd.
Stan Wawrinka has played his final match as a professional. An honourable defeat on an emotional night in Basel brought the curtain down on one of the most distinctive careers of the modern game.
For a stretch of the 2010s, men's tennis belonged to a handful of giants. Wawrinka refused to be a spectator. He won the Australian Open in 2014, the French Open in 2015 and the US Open in 2016, three major titles in an era when slipping past Federer, Nadal and Djokovic seemed almost impossible. He beat Nadal in Melbourne and Djokovic in both Paris and New York, and those wins are still the proof of what he could do on his best days.
What made Wawrinka special was how he did it. His one-handed backhand was a weapon, a whip-crack down the line that could bend any rally to his will. He never had the polish of his famous compatriot Roger Federer, and he did not seem to want it. He was a grinder with a flair for the spectacular, a player who looked like one of us until he hit a winner nobody else could.
The Swiss also leaves a legacy beyond the majors. He teamed with Federer to win Olympic doubles gold in 2008 and played a starring role in Switzerland's Davis Cup triumph in 2014. Basel gave him the send-off he deserved, and the sport is richer for the everyman who gatecrashed the greats and stayed to win.
