Stan Wawrinka overtakes Roger Federer and becomes the sole five-set king. The 40-year-old competes in his 49th five-set match at the Australian Open – and wins.
The most important thing in brief
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Stan Wawrinka (40) beat Arthur Gea (21) in five sets at the Australian Open 2026.
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It is his 49th five-set match at a Grand Slam tournament – a new record.
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The Romand played against Novak Djokovic five times.
In the last season of his career, Stan Wawrinka is back impressively: For the first time since 2023, he is in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament. The 40-year-old achieved this with, of all things, a real marathon victory.
Against Arthur Gea – who was born after Stan’s professional debut – the Swiss is on the pitch for four and a half hours. Crazy: In the decisive tiebreak, the veteran star is fitter than the 21-year-old Frenchman, who is plagued by cramps.
At the end Stan can celebrate his 45th victory in Melbourne. A marathon match that is also a record: Stan Wawrinka is now the sole five-set king. No tennis player in the world has played more games over five sets in his career.
Wawrinka leaves Federer behind
With his 49th five-set win at Grand Slam tournaments, he overtakes Roger Federer. Before the game against Gea, Wawrinka shared the record with his compatriot.
However, Federer has the better win record with 31 wins – to 26 with Wawrinka. Third-placed Novak Djokovic leads these statistics: He won 37 of his 47 games over five sets.
In the Davis Cup, Stan Wawrinka even played nine more games over five sets. Teammate Federer – who took part in the Davis Cup less often – was there only three times in a fifth set. Djokovic has five Davis Cup five-set matches.
Overall, Romand leads the five-set statistics with 58 to 52 ahead of Djokovic. The two played against each other five times.
When Stan became “Marathon Man”.
Tennis fans once gave Stan Wawrinka the nickname “Marathon Man”. Because successful five-set matches were part of the program at Romand: he won all of his first eight major games over five sets.
The series only broke in the US Open round of 16 in 2007 – in the third five-set game in the current tournament. But the most legendary Wawrinka five-movements would only follow six years later.
Five-set defeat against Djokovic as a career turning point
At the Australian Open 2013 he brought world number 1 Novak Djokovic to the brink of defeat. After five hours he lost 10:12 in the fifth. A turning point in his career, as Wawrinka explained several times in the following years.
After that game, he (then number 17 in the world) realized that he could compete at the level of the very best. He proved this again at the US Open in the same year when he lost to Djokovic again in five sets.
But Wawrinka carries on and gets his revenge: at the Australian Open 2014 he meets the Serb again – and this time he wins 9:7 in the fifth. Inspired by this, he marches to the first Grand Slam title of his career.
The following year he lost again in five sets against Djokovic in the Melbourne semi-finals. But Wawrinka is now a different player: in the finals of the French Open (2015) and US Open (2016) he even beat Djoker in four sets.
Wawrinka sets five-set record last season
Ten years later, Stan Wawrinka is in his last season. In this, the 40-year-old makes himself the sole five-set king in Melbourne, of all places. And who is on his heels? Of course Novak Djokovic – his worst five-set rival could replace him in the future.
But “Marathon Man” Stan still has the chance to expand his five-set account. Wawrinka continues his last Australian Open on Saturday against top ten player Taylor Fritz (USA).
Worth a look
