Melbourne (AFP) - Former champion Stan Wawrinka lived to fight another day with a gutsy four-set victory to kick off his final Australian Open campaign on Monday.

The three-time Grand Slam winner, 40, is playing his last season before retiring and gave his all to down Serbia’s Laslo Djere 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (⁷⁄₄) in front of a Kia Arena crowd willing him to victory.

But he made life hard for himself, working 18 break points but only converting three of them in a draining 3hr 20min battle.

“It was amazing today, so thank you so much,” said Wawrinka, who made his debut at Melbourne Park in 2006.

“It is my last year. It’s been too long that I’m coming back, but the passion is still intact.

“But I’m not young any more, so I need to be careful also.

“It’s my last time and I’m trying to enjoy it,” he added. “But in the same time as I’m trying to compete. I’m always going to fight.”

The Swiss stalwart, ranked 139, bounced back from losing the opening set to overwhelm the 92nd-ranked Djere in the second.

Defying his age, he then took the third before an energy-sapping fourth went to a tiebreak where the veteran’s experience came into play.

“He’s a great player. Last time we met, he beat me so I expected a tough match today,” he said.

“But I’m happy with the discipline I put on myself, to keep staying with him, to keep fighting, trying to be a bit more aggressive, trying to find a way.”

Wawrinka won the first of his majors at Melbourne in 2014, a season during which he peaked at world number three, and reached two other semi-finals.

Along with that title, he won the French Open a year later and the US Open in 2016.

The triumphs all came at a time when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were dominating men’s tennis.

Wawrinka has 16 career ATP titles although the last came in Geneva in 2017.

He won Olympic gold in doubles alongside Federer at Beijing in 2008 and helped deliver a first Davis Cup triumph for Switzerland in 2014.