Stan Wawrinka’s advice for players aiming to challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

Stan Wawrinka’s run at the Dubai Tennis Championships came to an end on Wednesday as he lost to Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev took the match 6-2, 6-3 and will play American Jenson Brooksby next in the quarter-finals.

Competing in his final season on the ATP Tour at age 40, Wawrinka took a moment after the match to thank the tournament staff for their efforts over the years.

By the time he steps away from tennis, Wawrinka will be remembered for being one of the few who managed to break through during an era dominated by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

In some ways, not much has changed. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner now hold similar positions at the top of men’s tennis.

Wawrinka advises players to focus on themselves in bid to challenge Alcaraz and Sinner

After his defeat, Wawrinka spoke with reporters and shared his thoughts on the current landscape: “I think for sure right now Jannik and Carlos are different level. But there will be opportunity in the future. There are always going to be opportunity for player.”

“For me the most important is to look about yourself, to look about what you can improve, how you [are] going to improve, what you can do the best to improve your game physically, tennis-wise, and to not look about who I need to beat this guy or I need to beat this guy.”

“At the end of the day you don’t play the top player every match. So the most important is how you going to play all year long, how you going to play the match when you don’t face them because most of the player.”

Alcaraz and Sinner have split three of their head-to-heads in major finals so far, with more matchups expected as both continue their rise.

The duo has shared nine straight Grand Slam titles between them.

Read more: