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At 41 years old, in what is expected to be his final season on the ATP tour, Stan Wawrinka returns to the Estoril tournament this Tuesday with a goal that goes beyond a simple victory. The Swiss, ranked 118th in the world, could become the oldest player to win an ATP match on clay since Jimmy Connors in 1994. A challenge worthy of the man, but Argentina's Roman Andres Burruchaga, ranked 60th and a true specialist on the surface, has no intention of making it easy for him.
A thirty-year-old record in sight
Since then, no player in his forties has achieved such a feat on the main tour's clay.
When Jimmy Connors won in Atlanta in 1994, he was also 41 years old. Since then, no player in his forties has achieved such a feat on the main tour's clay. Wawrinka, who confirmed at the start of the season that 2026 would be his last professional year, approaches this Portuguese week with the desire to add another line to the history books.
The Vaud native knows Portugal well, having lifted a trophy there: it was in 2013 in Oeiras, where he defeated David Ferrer in the final. Thirteen years later, the context is radically different. Wawrinka has compiled a record of seven wins and thirteen losses this season, and his current ranking now forces him to battle from the early rounds of ATP 250 events.
Burruchaga, the Argentine obstacle
On the other side, Roman Andres Burruchaga is no pushover. At 24, the world No. 60 has built all fourteen of his main-tour victories on clay. A finalist in Houston this season and a semifinalist in Umag last week, where he notably eliminated Flavio Cobolli, the Argentine arrives in Portugal full of confidence.
The duel, scheduled as the third match on Millennium Court, will pit two profiles that are completely different: the experience and flair of the three-time Grand Slam champion against the clinical consistency of a pure clay-courter. Wawrinka will need to rely on his serve and forehand to shorten rallies, a necessity against an opponent who excels in extended exchanges. The Swiss has never faced Burruchaga, adding an element of uncertainty to this first meeting.
The French in force
Tuesday's action could also confirm the strong French momentum in Estoril. On Monday, Luca Van Assche and Titouan Droguet both advanced past the first round. Van Assche battled through three sets to eliminate Portugal's Frederico Ferreira Silva, while Droguet got the better of Argentina's Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
This Tuesday, Hugo Gaston and Kyrian Jacquet will try to bring the number of French players in the second round to four. Gaston faces Bosnia's Damir Dzumhur, who leads their head-to-head 1-0 after a win in Bastad in 2025. A victory for the left-handed Toulouse native would set up an all-French clash against Van Assche in the next round, a matchup that would guarantee at least one Frenchman in the quarterfinals.
Jacquet, who was reinstated as a lucky loser after his elimination in qualifying, meets Spain's Daniel Mérida on Court Cascais. The two have split their two previous meetings on the Challenger circuit: Jacquet won at the Palmanova tournament in 2023, before Mérida took revenge at the Lyon Challenger in 2025. The Lyon native, ranked 136th, arrives with the confidence of a player who reached the main draw at Wimbledon last month.
A Portuguese week with high stakes
Beyond the case of Wawrinka alone, the Estoril ATP 250 outlines several interesting storylines. For the French, a harvest of wins on Portuguese clay would strengthen a contingent looking to increase its presence in the world's top 100. Pedro Martinez, the top seed, and Tiago Torres, the local hero who beat Nikoloz Basilashvili on Monday, are among the other names to watch in a draw that is more open than it appears.
For the Swiss, every match played this season carries a special dimension: that of the final chapter of a career that has delivered three Grand Slam titles, a Davis Cup, and some of the most beautiful forehands on the tour. The center court of the Estadio Millennium awaits its gray-templed hero, ready to defy the statistics as he has so often defied the tour's top players.