Under the warm afternoon sun, Stan Wawrinka ran out of gas against Daniil Medvedev in what turned out to be the final match in Dubai for the retiring Swiss tennis great on Wednesday.

While the 6-2 6-3 defeat to the 30-year-old Russian ended the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships chapter for the three-time Grand Slam winner, who won this tournament in 2016, it failed to dampen the spirit of the 40-year-old.

Despite the chastening defeat, Wawrinka still managed to put a smile on every fan’s face as he obliged everyone who wanted to take a selfie and gave a pat on his back.

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Moments before he stepped out to greet the fans, Wawrinka acknowledged the Centre Court crowd and the local organisers during a small on-court farewell ceremony.

Wawrinka with DDF tennis officials after receiving a special trophy.  

He could have quietly gone out, but Wawrinka didn’t let the media down, fielding as many questions as he could with poise and humility.

He smiled again when asked if the younger generation, trying to break the stranglehold of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, could take a leaf out of his book.

A late bloomer, Wawrinka famously won his first Grand Slam at the age of 28 at the Australian Open in 2014 with a stunning win over Rafael Nadal in the final, having already beaten Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

In the golden era of tennis, Wawrinka went on to win two more Slams, beating Djokovic on both occasions at the French Open (2015) and the US Open (2017).

Wawrinka, who also finished runner-up to Nadal in the 2017 French Open, says his success in the era dominated by Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray proves that there’s hope for the chasing pack in the game today, even as Alcaraz and Sinner have dominated the Grand Slam stage in the past couple of years.  

Daniil Medvedev shakes hands with Wawrinka after the match. 

“I think for sure right now, Jannik and Carlos are on a different level. But there will be an opportunity in the future. There are always going to be opportunities for the players,” Wawrinka said.

The owner of arguably the most graceful one-handed backhand in the history of the game, Wawrinka, then revealed how he kept motivating himself to push the limits as he searched for his first major.

“For me, the most important thing is to look after yourself, to look at what you can improve, how you are going to improve, what you can do the best to improve your game physically, tennis-wise,” he said.

“It’s not about looking at who I need to beat — this guy or the other guy?”

According to Wawrinka, the key to breaking the major drought for someone like Alexander Zverev, who has lost three Grand Slam finals, is maintaining consistency throughout the year.   

“At the end of the day, you don't play the top player every match, so the most important thing is how you are going to play all year long, how you are going to play the match when you don't face them (Alcaraz and Sinner),” Wawrinka said.

“It's, of course, a difficult challenge when you have two players like that who are so much better tennis-wise and physically, they're winning all the big titles.”

Wawrinka’s challenge was just as difficult. It was perhaps the reason he turned to Samuel Beckett for inspiration as the unassuming Swiss tattooed the legendary Irish author’s famous words — ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better’ — on his left forearm.

“I think it also goes for life in general. There is always a challenge in your life that you have to face,” he said, reflecting on his struggle in the early days of his career.

“You always try to stay positive and learn from it, learn from the past to have a better future in general.

“So, of course, my mindset was always to push myself, to learn from the losses and to try to keep improving.”