Photo credit: Rob Stone/@RobStoneTennis
The Happy Slam shared joyous news: Stan Wawrinka has been awarded an Australian Open wild card.
Wawrinka won the first of his three Grand Slam titles at the 2014 Australian Open, defeating Rafael Nadal in the final. Wawrinka reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 during that 2014 season.
The 40-year-old Wawrinka reached additional AO semifinals in 2015 and 2017.
A three-time Grand Slam champion, Wawrinka has tuned up for the Australian Open, which starts on January 18th, by captaining Switzerland to the United Cup finals in Sydney.
Thank youuuuuuu 🙏🏻💙 https://t.co/QW4t6eQ5gI
— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) January 9, 2026
AO organizers had three remaining men’s wild card with Wawrinka and Aussies Jordan Thompson and Christopher O’Connell receiving the final wild cards.
Wawrinka and Gael Monfils will be making their final Australian Open appearances this month.
On the ladies’ side, Venus Williams leads the list of wild-card recipients.
The 45-year-old superstar will play the Australian Open for the first time since 2021. Venus Williams, who launched her comeback to tournament tennis in Washington, DC last July, tuned up for the AO in Auckland.
It will be a record-setting appearance Down Under: Venus will become the oldest woman to play the AO main draw, breaking the record set by Kimiko Date, who was 44 years old when she played the Melbourne major in 2015.
Overall, Venus owns a 54-21 record at the Australian Open, including finals appearances in 2003 and 2017. She lost both of those finals to younger sister Serena Williams.