Jiri Lehecka speaks after beating Stan Wawrinka to end his tennis career

Jiri Lehecka has officially ended the career of Stan Wawrinka at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.

Wawrinka had announced that he would be playing the final tournament of his career in front of his Swiss support, bringing an end to his 24-year professional career.

The 41-year-old was certainly not handed a kind draw, as Wawrinka faced eighth seed Jiri Lehecka, who he had actually never played before.

Despite putting up a good fight in the final match of his career, Wawrinka was ultimately beaten 7-5, 7-6(2) by Lehecka, who had some words for him after the match.

Jiri Lehecka says he will ‘never forget’ beating Stan Wawrinka in his last ever match

Following his win over Wawrinka, Lehecka spoke in an on-court interview where he was asked about the match, but the Czech wanted to focus more on his opponent’s retirement.

“What can I say, I don’t really think today is the right time to discuss what I did right, what I did wrong,” said Lehecka. “I think that today is about something more, I think today is about celebrating Stan’s legacy, celebrating his career, celebrating whatever he did.

“I will just keep it short, I want to say congrats to him for his career, I wish him all the best and yeah, it’s been a pleasure to share the court with him.”

Lehecka was then asked a follow-up question about his favourite memories of Wawrinka, as he admitted that it felt a ‘bit weird’ to be on court for the Swiss’ final match, but also that he would never forget the match.

“Yeah, of course there has been a lot of matches that I saw,” answered Lehecka. “He was one of the guys that was playing unbelievably. He won the biggest tournaments, so for me to be here in his moment is a little bit weird, but at the same time it is a pleasure and I will never forget this match.”

Stan Wawrinka’s career achievements after he retires from tennis

There have been a number of ATP players retiring this year, including Kei Nishikori, Gael Monfils and David Goffin, but Wawrinka is arguably the highest-profile farewell of them all.

Wawrinka won 16 titles in his career, and three of those titles are Grand Slams, having won the Australian Open in 2014, Roland Garros in 2015 and then the US Open in 2016.

Despite his success at Grand Slam level, Wawrinka only won one Masters 1000 title in his career, which came at the Monte Carlo Masters in 2014.

Wawrinka is now not a professional tennis player for the first time in over 20 years, with big questions over what he will do next.

While he has suggested that he has no plans to coach for the foreseeable, what is inevitable is that Wawrinka will be inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in five years’ time.