{"id":397383,"date":"2026-01-09T14:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/397383\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T14:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:42:09","slug":"stan-wawrinka-gets-australian-open-singles-wild-card-nick-kyrgios-to-play-doubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/397383\/","title":{"rendered":"Stan Wawrinka gets Australian Open singles wild card, Nick Kyrgios to play doubles"},"content":{"rendered":"

2014 Australian Open<\/a> champion Stan Wawrinka<\/a> has received a singles wild card<\/a> for this year\u2019s tournament, with home favorite and 2022 Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios<\/a> only playing in the doubles event.<\/p>\n

Wawrinka, 40, announced in December that this will be his final year on tour. One of the highlights of his run 12 years ago was beating the three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic<\/a> in the quarterfinals, the second of three successive years in which the pair played out a five-set match in Melbourne. Wawrinka\u2019s title win, and that rivalry with Djokovic, made him extremely popular with the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the Australian Open in 2014, my first Grand Slam title, is an absolute career highlight for me, so I\u2019m incredibly grateful to receive this wild card,\u201d Wawrinka said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have the chance to play the Australian Open at the beginning of my final year on tour means the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also started the year well, playing an important role in Switzerland\u2019s route to the United Cup semifinals. He, Belinda Bencic and Jakub Paul will face Belgium Saturday in Sydney for a place in the final.<\/p>\n

The other two remaining wildcards were given to Australians: Jordan Thompson and Chris O\u2019Connell. Kyrgios, who is ranked No. 670 after barely playing since the summer of 2022 due to injuries and surgeries, says he is focusing on the doubles four years on from winning the event with compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter some good conversations with Tennis Australia I\u2019ve made the call to focus on doubles for this year\u2019s AO,\u201d Kyrgios wrote on Instagram. Tennis Australia has not commented on the decision not to give Kyrgios a singles wild card.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fit and back on court, but five-setters are a different beast and I\u2019m not quite ready to go the distance yet,\u201d Kyrgios wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tournament means everything to me, but I\u2019d rather give my spot to someone who\u2019s ready to make their moment count. It\u2019s all building blocks and I\u2019ll be back next year and pumped to compete. See you out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian Open begins Jan. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka has received a singles wild card for this year\u2019s tournament, with home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-397383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}