Stan the Man’s last big appearance?
After three Grand Slam singles trophies and an Olympic gold medal, a great career will come to an end at the end of 2026. Stan Wawrinka is on his farewell tour and is once again surpassing himself in Melbourne these days. Most recently, Marathon Stan defeated his opponent Arthur Gea, who is 19 years his junior, in a match lasting over four hours and 34 minutes, with the 21-year-old Frenchman suffering from cramps at the end.
At 40 years and 296 days, Stan the Man is the oldest player since Ken Rosewall (Australian Open 1978) to reach the third round of the hard court Grand Slam Down Under. If Stan Wawrinka’s tip to win against Taylor Fritz also comes true, it would be another sensation.
If everything goes normally, the American should still win the match. Nevertheless, we expect Iron Stan to put up a good fight in this match as well, and as a result, we see a lot of value in the Wawrinka vs. Fritz prediction that the Stanimal will not leave the Australian Open without winning another set, where he once won the men’s singles title in 2014.
The key will be for the Swiss to get his serve through. This is precisely where his American opponent’s great strength lies, as he hardly allows any break chances against himself and therefore doesn’t need that many breaks of his own.
Although Valentin Royer and Vit Kopriva were not the biggest hurdles on paper, Taylor Fritz had to go to a tiebreak in at least one set in each of his two previous matches at the 2026 Australian Open. A very valid approach would therefore be to bet on Stan Wawrinka against Taylor Fritz at odds of 1.69 via the handy bet365 app that at least one set will be decided in a tiebreak.
Stan Wawrinka – Taylor Fritz Head-to-head record
Head to head: 2:1
The two athletes have faced each other three times on the ATP Tour, with Stan Wawrinka leading the head-to-head record with two wins. The Swiss not only won the first-round match at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships against Taylor Fritz 3:1, but also beat the American 2:0 in Tokyo in 2018. In their most recent encounter at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, however, the Californian managed a 2:0 victory over Stan the Man.
Stan Wawrinka – Taylor Fritz Tip
It’s clear that Marathon Stan has already burned a lot of energy, but despite his 40 years of age, he was physically superior to his 21-year-old opponent. The crowd has Stan the Man on his side anyway as the 2014 champion. Nevertheless, it would be a sensation if he could now eliminate the number nine in the ATP world rankings in his old age.
At the end of the day, we assume that the American will win the race. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a clean 3-0. This makes it all the more interesting to bet on Stan the Man winning at least one more set in what could be his last singles match at the Australian Open.
For the 40-year-old Swiss to win over 0.5 sets, Interwetten is offering odds of 1.90 on Stan Wawrinka against Taylor Fritz, which we are betting on with four out of ten units.
