Stan Wawrinka: There will be opportunities to challenge Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner

Stan Wawrinka has plenty of experience competing against the best tennis players in the world, and as he prepares to end his 24-year-long career at the end of 2026, the former world No. 3 spoke about the current state of the men’s game after playing at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for the final time.

“I think for sure right now Jannik and Carlos are different level,” Wawrinka said of the current Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner duopoly. “But there will be opportunity in the future. There are always going to be opportunity for player[s].”

Wawrinka spent much of the last two decades challenging the likes of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal, beating Djokovic and Nadal to win three major titles at the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 Roland Garros, and 2016 US Open.

As the Swiss veteran exits the sport, the landscape is remarkably similar with a growing gap between Alcaraz and Sinner, who have split the last nine major victories, and the field, which has yet to find a Wawrinka equivalent capable of playing spoiler.

With his unique perspective, Wawrinka offered advice to those aiming to factor into the bourgeoning “Sincaraz” era.

“For me the most important is to look about yourself, to look about what you can improve, how you going to improve, what you can do the best to improve your game physically, tennis-wise, and to not look about who, ‘I need to beat this guy or I need to beat this guy,’” Wawrinka said after a defeat to former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

“At the end of the day you don't play the top player every match, so the most important is how you going to play all year long, how you going to play the match when you don't face them because most of the player, it's of course [a] difficult challenge when you have two player like that, that they are so far better tennis-wise and physically, they're winning all the big titles.”

Still, Wawrinka believes he’s leaving the sport in good shape.

“I think the tennis is a beautiful game,” he said. “Always been passionate about that. Lucky to had the opportunity to play this life for more than 20 years. For me it was amazing chance.

“I think tennis-wise all the generation that are playing now are amazing tennis player. We can see also we have great people at the top of the game. That is the most important for the young generation.”