MELBOURNE, Jan 22 : Stan Wawrinka lived to fight another day in his final Australian Open on Thursday, the three-times Grand Slam winner battling to a marathon 4-6 6-3 3-6 7-5 7-6(10-3) victory over Frenchman Arthur Gea at Melbourne Park.

Wawrinka, who won his first Grand Slam in Melbourne in 2014 before going on to capture the French Open in 2015 and the U.S. Open a year later, had announced before the tournament that he would retire at the end of the 2026 season.

With the crowd behind him, the 40-year-old held his own against an opponent 19 years his junior throughout the opening exchanges and came back from a set down to draw level in the contest after the second set.

Gea edged the third set when he broke the Swiss right-hander’s serve to take a 5-3 lead as Wawrinka sent a backhand from the baseline wide of the tramline. The Frenchman then held serve to move clear.

The pair traded breaks of serve in the fourth set, which Wawrinka won to force a decider. The Swiss surged to a 2-0 lead in the fifth set and tapped his temple to underline his mental resolve as the Kia Arena crowd roared.

Gea had other ideas and erased the deficit but Wawrinka continued to play like a younger version of himself even as his opponent began to cramp, winning the tiebreak to make the third round for the first time since his 2020 quarter-final run.