The ongoing 2026 Australian Open is the start of a farewell tour for two tennis players – Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka. While the former has bowed out with a first-round, four-set loss to Dane Sweeny, the latter is still in the race to progress into the next stages, with his second-round clash against Arthur Gea still on at the time of writing.
10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who will turn 39 in May, said that he had a couple of years left in him after securing a straight-sets win over Italy’s Francesco Maestrelli on Thursday. The 38-year-old said that he was younger than both those players and, as a result, had more time on his hands.
“Monfils and Wawrinka both have left a great, great legacy as players. But as people as well, both players are friendly in the dressing room.”
“Monfils is one year older than me, Wawrinka is two years older than me, so I think I have one or two years more atleast,” the Serb told ESPN’s Latin American X handle on Thursday.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion had quashed all retirement talk ahead of the tournament, adding that he was still living his dream and had the requisite love and passion for tennis.
“I’m still living my dream to be honest. It’s passion and love for the game. It’s the interaction with people. It’s the energy that you feel when you walk out on the court. That adrenaline rush, it’s almost like a drug. I think that a lot of the top athletes from different sports can relate to that. I have been at least hearing them speak about that. It’s so addictive, you know, the feeling of competing,”
“When that arrives and kind of becomes ripe in my head, I’ll share it with you, and then we can all discuss on the farewell tour,” he had said.
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Djokovic will take on Botic van de Zandschulp in the third round on Saturday
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