Wawrinka bows out of Roland Garros with first-round defeat

Stan Wawrinka’s final Roland-Garros match ended with a first-round defeat, but the memory that will outlast it is still the one he made in 2015. The 41-year-old Swiss fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to lucky loser Jesper de Jong on a packed afternoon at Court Simonne-Mathieu, closing the Paris chapter of a career that once peaked with a French Open title over Novak Djokovic.

For Wawrinka, this was never just another stop on tour. Before the tournament, he signed Roland-Garros’s new Wall of Champions at Court Philippe-Chatrier and said the image he would carry most vividly was walking up the steps and onto the court in 2015, when he delivered the most important victory of his Roland-Garros career. That run culminated in a championship that still defines his place in the event’s modern history.

Wawrinka will not retire until the Swiss Indoors Basel in October 2026, but Roland-Garros was the stage where his longevity and his peak were both on display. This year’s loss was his 21st career main-draw appearance in Paris, and he finished with 46 main-draw wins at the French Open, ninth on the all-time men’s list. That record places him among the tournament’s most enduring figures of the Open era, even as the generation that followed the Big Three begins to fade from the game.

De Jong’s path into the draw only sharpened the sense of an ending for Wawrinka. The Dutchman entered as a lucky loser after Arthur Fils withdrew injured on Saturday, then used the opening to advance into a second-round meeting with Italian teenager Federico Cina. Wawrinka, by contrast, left Court Simonne-Mathieu to a standing ovation and loud applause, a reception that reflected how fully Paris has embraced him over the years.

The crowd’s response captured the meaning of the day. Wawrinka’s career in Paris now stands as a measure of both excellence and endurance: 21 main-draw appearances, one unforgettable title, and a farewell that reminded Roland-Garros how champions can choose to leave not with a final triumph, but with dignity, history, and the gratitude of a stadium that remembers.