On his farewell tour, Stan Wawrinka opened up about what the future might look like for the three-time Major champion off the court, once he pulls the curtains on his 24-year-long career. The former World No. 3’s current stop is the Estoril Open, where he was asked about his future coaching ambitions, to which the Swiss player had a practical answer.

“I don’t think I’ll be coaching next year or anytime soon,” said Wawrinka in the interview. “That’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to travel too much. I want to keep things quieter, but in the long term, we’ll see.” Travel is one of the hardest obstacles for tennis players and their coaching staff, as the ATP calendar requires them to move across countries constantly to play the various Tour-level events. For someone like Wawrinka, it is understandable that he would want to keep travel to a minimum to have more downtime to enjoy his post-tennis life.

Current coaching arrangements include coaches taking time off from the hectic schedule of tour life and not accompanying the player at all events. Current players often hire former top players as mentors to work with someone who can provide valuable technical input and understand the champion’s mentality. These mentors rarely travel all year long with their players, as seen in the very recent case of Andrey Rublev and Marat Safin. The latter joined his compatriot’s team in 2025 but does not travel to every event, as Safin was not seen in Rublev’s box during his Bastad Open title run.

However, Wawrinka, in his answer, left the door open to future coaching possibilities, potentially a few years after his retirement. If he does dip his toe into the coaching pool, he will have Andy Murray’s example to follow, as the Brit was one of Wawrinka’s peers who took up a coaching job after retirement. Murray’s brief high-profile link-up with Novak Djokovic’s team was the talk of the tennis town, after which the former World No.1 has taken up the coaching role for Jack Draper, where Murray already has the flexibility of choosing which events he would accompany Draper to.

Talking about his retirement life at Estoril was nostalgic for Wawrinka, who remembered the title-winning run he had at the same event over a decade ago.

Stan Wawrinka Returns to Estoril After 13 Years

Wawrinka had his first visit to the Estoril Open in 2013, where the Swiss player had a terrific time as he reached the final as the second seed to battle it out against the top-seeded David Ferrer. Now, in 2026, Wawrinka spoke about his feelings upon returning to Estoril during his final season after 13 years.

“I’m happy to be back in Portugal. I came here a few years ago, and I have amazing memories, especially winning the title here,” said Wawrinka. “I’m very happy and pleased to be able to play here one last time this year.” Ranked below the Top 100 currently, Wawrinka has relied on wildcards to get direct entry at events this year. Even though Swiss has not made any deep runs at any of the events, he has shown flashes of his signature one-handed backhand and largely remained competitive in his matches.

Wawrinka’s best run this year came at the Australian Open, where he reached the third round. However, his second-round victory over Arthur Gea was a treat to watch, as the Swiss battled from two sets to one down to win a four-and-a-half-hour match against an opponent who was 20 years younger than him. Even though Wawrinka’s campaign came to an end against Taylor Fritz in the next round, the Swiss went down fighting in a tough four-set match.

However, at this stage of his career, results do not matter that much to Wawrinka anymore, as was seen when he got a massive crowd applause at his home event in Gstaad, even after losing his first-round match. The former World No.3 will hope to give his best at Estoril as he moves towards his final stop in Basel later this year.