Stan Wawrinka has named his favourite Grand Slam title victory – out of the three he collected during his illustrious career – and also compared the level of the Big four to that of Alcaraz and Sinner.
The Swiss, who will retire at the end of 2026, collected 22 match victories over Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray across his career.
Wawrinka broke out onto the tour as a professional in 2002, at age 17, winning the Junior French Open title in 2003.
Whilst it would take him nearly a decade to truly break into the world’s elite, the three-time Grand Slam champion brought his own unique style to the tour – best signified by his lethal one-handed backhand.
It’s even more remarkable that the 40-year-old continues to compete in 2026, recently reaching the third round of the Australian Open.
In addition to his victories over the Big 4, he collected two match victories in 2019 against current world No 2 Jannik Sinner, who is 16 years younger.
Wawrinka has yet to face world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
“Those five players you mentioned, and also Andy Murray are the best players we saw in the game,” the Swiss legend said when asked by the Times of India to compare the levels of Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic with that of Alcaraz and Sinner.
“It has been amazing for me to face them, to be able to play against the Big four for more than 15 years. It was a challenge.
“But first I’m a fan of tennis, I’m passionate about the game. I always enjoyed watching them, as a tennis fan and player.
“It was an opportunity for me to play the best players in the game. Right now, we are seeing that the level of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz has been amazingly high.
“What they’ve been doing already for a few years, winning all the Grand Slams between them, is amazing to watch.”
Indeed, Alcaraz and Sinner have dominated the tennis scene over the last 24 months, winning all nine of the Grand Slams contested and currently sitting thousands of points ahead of the rest of the pack in the rankings.
In 2025, they did something which the Big Three never managed to accomplish by reaching three Grand Slam finals in the same season.
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Wawrinka’s biggest breakthrough came at the 2014 Australian Open, where he defeated world No 1 Rafael Nadal – who had tweaked his back – to claim his maiden Grand Slam title.
In the quarter-finals, the Swiss had defeated Djokovic in a five-set thriller.
As a result of the title, Wawrinka reached a career-high ranking of world No 3.
Just over 16 months later, Wawrinka ended an 11-match losing streak to Federer in the last eight of the French Open.
In the final of the tournament, he took on tournament-favourite Djokovic, who had triumphed against nine-time Parisian champion Nadal earlier in the event.
However, it was Wawrinka who battled back from a set down, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–4, to upset the Serb and double his Grand Slam haul.
Lastly, at the 2016 US Open, Wawrinka saved a match point in the third round against Dan Evans before going on to, once again, defeat Djokovic in four sets to lift another Grand Slam and further elevate his status.
Nearly 10 years after his most recent victory, the former world No 3 believes one of the three titles sits above the others.
“It’s tough to choose, but it’s also my job to answer the question,” commented Wawrinka.
“If I have to pick one title, they have all been really special, but one is the French Open (2015).
“I grew up playing on clay, I practised a lot in Spain, also coming from the French part of Switzerland, Roland Garros was the one that we watched the most as kids.
“That’s also the one I won as a junior. To beat Novak in the final there was really special.”
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