Pallade Veneta - 'So much love': Wawrinka bids adieu to Roland Garros

The 41-year-old Swiss will hang up his racquet at the end of the current season and had hoped for one last swansong at the major he won in 2015 but his farewell was cut short in the first round.

Wawrinka went down in just over three hours on court under a blazing sun, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong.

"It was amazing. More than what I could expect and what I could dream of," Wawrinka told reporters.

"So much support, so much love from the people. It was exactly the reason why I kept playing for so long."

Despite also winning major titles in Melbourne and New York, Wawrinka revealed Roland Garros was the tournament that meant the most to him.

"Today it was really tough. It's never easy to say goodbye to something you love so much," he said.

"I grew up watching Roland Garros. I'm from Switzerland, from the French part. The dream at that time of the year (May/June) was to come back from school and to put on France Televisions and watch all night, all day, until late. As a kid, I just enjoyed that so much.

"For me, the French Open is always going to be completely different than the other tournaments."

He added that Roland Garros was "probably at the top" of the most difficult places to bid farewell to during his final season as a professional.

- 'All about Stan today' -

After the match, Wawrinka was presented with a glass case containing a section of a clay court and two video tributes to his career were displayed on big screens around the stadium -- the latter featuring messages directed to Wawrinka from former champions Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, among other luminaries of the sport.

"It's hard, I don't want to say goodbye to you here," Wawrinka said on-court, before also thanking the people who work behind the scenes at the tournament.

"Unfortunately, it's my last match at Roland Garros, but thank you.

"Me too, I love you," he added in response to cries from the spectators of 'we love you, Stan'.

"Thanks to all your support, I wanted to go on as long as possible, to 41 years of age, to continue living moments like this."

Despite the mercury tipping over 30C, there were few empty seats to spare on Court Simonne Mathieu to see the hugely-popular former world number three appear for the final time on the red dirt in Paris.

A crushing forehand by De Jong earned the 106th-ranked player the crucial break to get ahead 5-4 in the fourth set.

His every point roared on by the crowd, Wawrinka forced a break-back opportunity but his best efforts to prolong his stay in Roland Garros, which at one moment left him lying panting on his back, were in vain as De Jong battled into the second round.

"To be honest, it's not about me today," the 25-year-old said. "Funny story about Stan, he was playing against my coach when I was a ball kid!

"It's all about Stan today."

A.Saggese--PV