Magnus Norman, who has worked for more than a decade with Stan Wawrinka, says the Swiss champion is healthier than this time 12 months ago and can continue to trouble the world’s best.
Wawrinka, who won the first of his three Grand Slam titles at Australian Open 2014, turns 40 next month, and is currently the oldest man ranked inside the ATP top 1,000.
After an injury-riddled few years, Wawrinka remains, according to Norman, as motivated as ever almost 25 years into his professional career.
“He loves tennis, it's his passion, he loves to go out on court and practice and you can really feel it,” Norman said on this week’s episode of The Sit-Down podcast.
“Even this morning we were on court for one-and-a-half hours together and I still enjoy it as much as I did in the first years, and he does too. So that's the love of the game, for sure.
"And then I think he feels that he's still competitive and he still has that drive that he can beat one of the top players, if he has a good day. Maybe not win a Grand Slam, because you have to win seven matches in 14 days, that's really tough.
LISTEN: Magnus Norman on The Sit-Down
“But to feel that you're competitive, and to stay in tennis as long as possible, and he would like to go out with maybe, I don't know, winning a tournament, or doing a good result – finishing the last chapter in a good way.”
Norman, who reached the Australian Open semifinals and Roland Garros final in a banner 2000 season, barely overlapped with Wawrinka on tour. Injuries prematurely ended his career and he competed for the last time in 2003, the same year Wawrinka won the junior singles title at Roland Garros.
Norman, a former world No.2, ultimately linked up with Wawrinka as a coach in 2013, and within a year, the Swiss star won his first major title at Melbourne Park.
Victories followed at Roland Garros in 2015 and at the 2016 US Open, putting Wawrinka three quarters of the way to a career Grand Slam.
Since 2017, Wawrinka has battled knee and foot injuries, requiring surgery. Another foot injury – a fracture, sustained in Metz in November 2023 – set him back.
“The whole last year, 2024, he was playing catch-up a little bit,” Norman recalled.
“The fact that he was coming back from the knee injury, working so hard, his career was in danger during the knee surgery and during this time, [he] came back to top 50 and [then for] that to happen – it was mentally really tough.
"But now I feel like he's back. The last few weeks of last season he was back to really good shape again. I feel like he's better prepared before '25 than '24. So let's see.”
So far in 2025, Wawrinka has won just one of his six matches, and is currently ranked 171st.
Yet according to Norman, he’s a player nobody wants to face in the early rounds of a tournament.
"It's been great over the years to be on the court with Stan, because he always wants to try to get better. He thinks very much long term; it's not only the next week, it's about the process, it's about finding a way to win long term,” Norman said.
"It's been up and down, the last couple of years it's been a little bit tough, but we stick together – I think we have a great relationship and we're still very motivated to keep playing well.
“Even this year, he's turning 40 soon, but he's very motivated ... to play well still.”
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