Baez sends Wawrinka into the sunset on his 16th and final Monte-Carlo appearance
Stan Wawrinka played his final match at Monte-Carlo on Monday, the tournament he won in 2014 in one of the great moments of his career, and was beaten by Sebastian Baez in straight sets (7-5, 7-5).
Stan Wawrinka, Monte-Carlo 2026 | © Chryslène Caillaud / Panoramic
Argentine Sebastian Baez defeated Swiss wild card Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Monday, eliminating the 41-year-old in his 16th and last appearance at a tournament where he made some of the finest memories of his career.
The scoreline told only part of the story. Wawrinka, playing on his favourite surface in the final year of his professional career, conceded 12 break points across the match, six of which Baez converted. In the second set, the Swiss recovered from 1-5 down to win four consecutive games before Baez closed it.
The crowd on Court Rainier III had come to say goodbye, and Wawrinka, as he has done throughout his farewell tour, gave them something to cheer.
Wild-card at Roland-Garros ?
After the match, the tournament paid tribute to the three-time Grand Slam champion and the 2014 champion in a ceremony on court. “When I see the support I have today, it is one of the reasons I am still here and still playing at 41 – to live moments like these,” Wawrinka said.
Monte-Carlo holds a particular place in his story. He won his only Masters 1000 title here in 2014, beating his compatriot Roger Federer in the final, a few months after his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne.
Wawrinka has spoken about the difficulty of playing his closest rivals. “Matches against Roger were always complicated because of that very close relationship,” he said on Monday. “So to have managed to get past that and win the tournament was exceptional for me.” The following year, he won Roland-Garros – beating Novak Djokovic in the final – and his love for the red clay has never dimmed.
2026 farewell tour
His farewell season has been anything but ceremonial. At the Australian Open in January, the 40-year-old became the oldest man to reach the third round in Melbourne since Ken Rosewall in 1978. He returned to the top 100 of the ATP rankings in February for the first time since July 2024, having collected five wins to that point – already more than in all of 2025.
He skipped both Indian Wells and Miami deliberately, telling reporters ahead of Monte-Carlo: “I didn’t want to go that far. Travelling is not easy after more than 20 years on tour. I felt that if I wanted to play the full year and still be physically and mentally fit, it was better not to take that trip.” He arrives in Monaco with a 6-8 win-loss record for 2026.
Wawrinka already has a schedule mapped out for the rest of the clay swing. He plans to play Barcelona next week, then likely Rome and Geneva, and is hopeful of a Roland-Garros wild card — though characteristically measured about it. “Of course I would love to play in Paris, but it could be tight,” he said. “If my ranking doesn’t allow it, it means I haven’t won enough matches. If that’s the case, I’ll ask for a wild card but I’ll also understand if it’s refused. I’ve had one before and there are many players who deserve it just as much as I do.”
Baez, ranked No. 103 in the world, advances to the round of 32 where the cut for Roland-Garros direct qualification falls at the end of the week — a deadline that makes his run here doubly significant.
