Stan Wawrinka lost 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 to Jesper De Jong in the first round at Roland Garros on Monday, ending his final appearance at the French Open with defeat. The 41-year-old will not retire until October's Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel, but his Paris career is now over.
Wawrinka told Sport at Roland Garros that his 2015 French Open final against Novak Djokovic was the best match of his life. He won that final from a set down, denying Djokovic the career Grand Slam for another year, and it remains the defining night of a career that also brought major titles at the 2014 Australian Open and the 2016 US Open.
That run began in Melbourne, where Wawrinka won his first major aged 28, then beat Djokovic 9-7 in the deciding set to end the Serbian's run of 14 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals. He also beat a hindered Rafael Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open final before returning to Paris a year later for the match he now ranks above the rest.
The Paris victory over Djokovic has long stood as the high point of Wawrinka's career, and his plaid red, white and grey shorts from that famous run have become part of Roland Garros folklore, with one pair now on display in the museum there. He later beat Djokovic from a set down again to win the 2016 US Open, spending 21 hours and 49 minutes on court across 27 sets and saving a match point against Britain's Dan Evans in the third round.
Wawrinka said he was left "completely empty" after the Roland Garros final he lost to De Jong, a sign that even in the final chapter of his Paris career, the demands of the tournament still reached him. The final stop now moves to Basel, where retirement is set for October and where the last pages of a remarkable Grand Slam career will be written.
