Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka, 40, bowed out of the Australian Open in a four-set third-round loss to Taylor Fritz in his final season.
SWISS veteran Stan Wawrinka bid a heroic farewell to the Australian Open on Saturday, bowing out in the third round to American ninth seed Taylor Fritz.
The 40-year-old wildcard and former champion lost 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a battling performance at Melbourne Park.
Wawrinka, who made his tournament debut in 2006 and won the title in 2014, is playing his final season before retirement.
Fritz will now face Italian fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti in the last 16.
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The first set was tightly contested, with the pair trading thunderous forehands before Fritz edged the tiebreak.
With the roof closed on John Cain Arena due to heat, the 28-year-old American secured a narrow advantage.
Wawrinka, with strong crowd support, raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set and broke Fritz to level the match in 33 minutes.
On Thursday, he became the first man aged 40 or over to reach a Grand Slam third round since Ken Rosewall in 1978.
Fritz fought back in the third set, breaking in the seventh game with a powerful smash to regain control.
The three-time Grand Slam champion took a medical timeout after the third set as his efforts took a toll.
Wawrinka, now ranked 139, peaked at world number three in 2014, winning the French Open in 2015 and the US Open in 2016.
His major triumphs came during the era dominated by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
The Swiss star has 16 career ATP titles, with his last coming in Geneva in 2017.
He also won Olympic doubles gold with Federer at the 2008 Beijing Games. – AFP
