This is proof of his incredible longevity even if he would undoubtedly have liked a different outcome. At 39 years old, Stan Wawrinka lost this Monday, unsurprisingly, to the Italian Flavio Cobolli in three sets (6-7, 7-6, 6-3) in the 2nd round of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, but will have above all achieved the feat of playing in career against the father and son of the family 21 years apart.
In August 2003, “Stan The Man”, a young 18-year-old player who was discovering the professional circuit, had already experienced defeat against a Cobolli, Stefano by his first name, modest 289th player in the world at the time, in the quarter-finals of the Brindisi Challenger in Italy (4-6, 6-3, 6-3).
A gross refereeing error
This October 7, 2024, the trend will therefore have been the same against a member of the Cobolli family. After winning the first set, Wawrinka gradually weakened, also not helped by a gross refereeing error with the announcement of a bad score which cost him a break.
His 17 aces and 34 winning shots were ultimately not enough for him to achieve a second consecutive victory for the first time this season on the ATP circuit. In the first round, the three-time Grand Slam winner managed to dispose of the young Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard despite his status as 236th player in the world. His retirement is inexorably approaching and his appearances on the circuit this year are limited to a few records or anecdotal statistics like this one.
