Stan Wawrinka's final Roland Garros campaign ended on Monday when Jesper De Jong beat the 41-year-old in the first round, the match finishing 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4.
The loss — reported elsewhere with a different scoreline of 3-6 6-3 3-6 4-6 by Yahoo News Australia — closed a chapter that began when Wawrinka made his French Open debut 21 years ago and included his 2015 title and that famous final win over Novak Djokovic.
The match played out on a beautiful Parisian afternoon in front of a packed, vociferous crowd. Wawrinka collapsed to the court after the final point, bowed his head in his chair and then took part in a post-match ceremony in which he was presented with a special trophy.
Wawrinka used the press moment to reflect on what Roland Garros has meant to him. "It's always tough to choose, but yes, it's there, because it was Roland Garros and it was the final against Djokovic - number one at that time. I believe it was the best of my life," he said, recalling his 2015 triumph. "It was amazing. More than what I could expect and what I could dream of," he added, and later: "So much support, so much love from the people. It was exactly the reason why I kept playing for so long."
The evening carried other theatrical touches. Wawrinka wore a strip of fabric sewn into his shirt from his famous plaid shorts; video messages from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were shown to the crowd. Those moments reinforced the sense that Monday was a farewell to Paris, even though he has said he will not retire until the Swiss Indoors in Basel in October.
That ceremonial send-off sharpened the contrast with the match itself. Despite the applause and tributes, Wawrinka could not convert that history into a winning match. "Today it was really tough. It's never easy to say goodbye to something you love so much. I grew up watching Roland Garros. I'm from Switzerland, from the French part. The dream at that time of the year was to come back from school and to put on France Television and watch all night, all day, until late. As a kid, I just enjoyed that so much," he said, underlining how singular the tournament has been for him: "For me, the French Open is always going to be completely different than the other tournaments."
The result also arrived in a week that closed another home story: Gael Monfils, like Wawrinka, played his final Roland Garros match on Monday, losing to Hugo Gaston 2-6 3-6 6-3 6-2 0-6. Monfils is also retiring at the end of the season, and his exit added to the day's sense of an era ending on the red clay.
Wawrinka's career is a ledger of high peaks — the 2014 Australian Open, the 2015 French Open, the 2016 US Open and Olympic doubles gold in 2008 alongside Federer, and a Davis Cup triumph with Switzerland in 2014. He has spoken before of exhaustive stretches: at the 2016 US Open he played 27 sets across the fortnight and spent 21 hours and 49 minutes on court, even saving a match point against Dan Evans in the third round.
The mismatch between the ceremony and the scoreboard is the story's friction: a veteran full of memories and affection for Roland Garros left under applause not with another iconic victory but with a loss that, by ending his final Paris run, made the ceremony feel like a formal goodbye. He will carry the memory of his 2015 title and the crowd's support onward; he will also have months to try to shape the final chapter of his career before Basel.
Wawrinka closed his remarks the way he has spoken about the place for years: with gratitude and a clear-eyed sense of the moment. "So much support, so much love from the people. It was exactly the reason why I kept playing for so long," he said. For now, Roland Garros is done — and Wawrinka, who once called that Paris final the best match of his life, will take his farewell in pieces and try to finish 2026 on his own terms.
