Although his 'prime' is really very far away and he no longer has a chance to compete to win the most prestigious titles, Stan Wawrinka still loves tennis very much and has no intention of retiring in the near future. The Swiss veteran who recently turned 40 works very hard every day and is able to create problems for even players much younger than him on his best days.
The 3-time Grand Slam champion received a wild card from the organizers of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 the first major tournament of the season on red clay which evokes beautiful memories within him having triumphed in the Principality in 2014, when he defeated his illustrious compatriot Roger Federer in the final (depriving him of one of the few tournaments he was missing).
Wawrinka is very disappointed
The current world number 163 honored the wild card granted to him by the organizers, coming close to victory against a red clay specialist like Alejandro Tabilo in the first round. The champion from Lausanne won the first set very easily, while the Chilean ace reacted in the second set and placed the decisive break just before the tiebreak.
'Stanimal' was ahead by a break in the third set and was already looking forward to the big match against Serbian legend Novak Djokovic in the second round, but Tabilo had other plans and prevailed after two and a half truly spectacular hours.
"Frustration is more intense when at my age, because I know that the end of my career is approaching and that I won't have many more chances to go on in the most prestigious tournaments" confessed Wawrinka at the end of the match.
"As often happens in tennis, a few points make the difference. Maybe I wasn't lucid enough in some important moments, while in other situations I should have been more aggressive. I made some really serious unforced errors in the third set and these details made the difference," added the former world No.3.
