Veterans Cilic and Wawrinka reached the 1/16 final at the Aus Open. Djokovic’s reaction

37-year-old Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic (ATP 70) and a 40-year-old Swiss Stan Wawrinka Reached the 1/16 final at the 2026 Australian Open.

Cilic defeated 21st seed Denis Shapovalov (Canada, ATP 23) in three sets in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Marin started the Australian Open with a win over Daniel Altmaier. His next opponent will be Casper Ruud, who is ranked 13th in the ATP rankings.

Cilic achieved his 599th career win at the ATP level, equaling Goran Ivanisevic for the most wins by a Croatian tennis player in the Open era.

Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final

Denis Shapovalov (Canada) [21] – Marin Cilic (Croatia) – 4:6, 3:6, 2:6

Wawrinka, who is in the final season of his career, won in 4 hours and 33 minutes in a five-set thriller against Arthur Gea (France, ATP 198) in the second round of the Aus Open. This fight is the longest fight in slam so far.

This match marked the 49th five-setter match of Stan’s career in Grand Slam tournaments; He surpassed Roger Federer (48) and became the sole owner of the Open Era record in this indicator.

Since the introduction of the 128-player draw across the four Grand Slams in 1987, Wawrinka became the oldest player to achieve multiple wins at a single major, at 40 years and 296 days.

Stan started AO-2026 with a victory over Laszlo Gyore. His next opponent will be world number 9 Taylor Fritz.

Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final

Arthur Hea (France) [Q] – Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) [WC] – 6:4, 3:6, 6:3, 5:7, 6:7 (3:10)

Besides Cilic and Wawrinka, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic from Serbia also qualified for the 1/16 final at the Aus Open on January 22. After the end of the match day, Novak published a post in his story with the match result and Marin and Stan’s results and signed:

“There is no coup without the old man” translated from Serbian means: “There is no coup without the old man.”