What Stan Wawrinka said after his emotional farewell at Swiss Indoors in Ba...

Swiss Legend Stan Wawrinka played his last match at the Swiss Indoors in Basel to end his long and illustrious career. Speaking about his farewell from tennis, he described his last match as, “much more beautiful than I could have dreamed.”

The three-time Grand Slam winner retired from tennis after his loss to Jiri Lehecka in the first round in Basel on Tuesday night. One of the most established and loved players on the ATP tour, he had an outstanding career that started in 2002. Speaking to ATPTour.com Wawrinka said he had no regrets when asked about his legacy.

He said, “It’s not up to me. There are different visions of me as a player over the past 20 years,” the former world No 3 said. “For me, all I wanted in my career was to give everything, to have no regrets, to always fight, to always give 100% in every match out of respect for myself, for the opponent, for the tournament, for the fans, for everybody. That was always the most important thing for more than 20 years, and that’s the only way you can leave the sport: without any regrets.”

The 41-year-old veteran, after his final match, received a lengthy round of applause from journalists when he arrived for the post-match press conference. Here is what an emotional Wawrinka said to the media, “Thank you very much, it’s very kind of you, thank you. Mixed, a bit of everything, a bit of everything, a bit of everything… I’m sorry.

“Basically, I’m very happy, I’m very, very happy to have been able to live this last year. Obviously, I’m sad to know that I won’t be able to experience this kind of emotion anymore, that I won’t be able to play at this level, to be able to play in front of the world, to be able to play in Switzerland. But as I said, in the end, I’m getting old.

“It’s been a few years now, after my big injuries, that I fought to come back to a correct level. I was out of blood in recent years. The body doesn’t always follow as much as I would like, neither does the head.

“And to finish in Switzerland, with such an audience, with such enthusiasm, to have this chance, to have a ceremony like it was yesterday, with so much love from the public, from the fans, from the tournament, from all the people who have been there all these years, it’s not something I could have imagined a few years ago, quite simply.

“And so, inevitably, there are tears, inevitably, tomorrow it’s going to be a lot of tears. Not necessarily because of the alcohol, but more because of the sadness, because the book, we have to close it at some point.