Wawrinka announced last month that 2026 will be his final year on tour, but he warned he wasn't planning to go quietly.
The 40-year-old lived up to his word in 33-degree heat at Perth's RAC Arena on Saturday, digging deep into his reserves to pull off a brave 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) victory over Rinderknech to give Switzerland an unassailable 2-0 lead in their tie against France.
World No.11 Belinda Bencic had given Switzerland a 1-0 lead earlier in the day by beating Leolia Jeanjean 6-2 6-4 in 91 minutes.
After an epic match that lasted three hours and 18 minutes, Wawrinka joked he had hoped for a quicker contest to begin 2026.
"But no, this is why I keep playing," Wawrinka said.
"I'm passionate about the game. I'm always going to push my own limit. I've said I've been working hard this off-season.
"Even if it's my last year, I don't just want to play to play. I want to play to compete and try to win.
"So I'm super happy with the performance today, with the win. It was a tough fight, big fight, but I stayed quite positive and really focused on my own discipline during the game."
In a thrilling final set, Wawrinka was just two points away from winning at 5-4 and 30-15 up against Rinderknech's serve.
Wawrinka committed three consecutive unforced errors to let that chance slip, but he came up with the goods in a tense tiebreak.
The big-serving Rinderknech sent down 17 aces to six across the match, but Wawrinka's ability to dig deep in the key moments proved crucial.
Wawrinka, who reached a career high No.3 in the world in 2014, is now ranked a lowly 157th.
But if his showing on Saturday is anything to go by, he looms as a major banana skin for the game's top players this year.
Switzerland went on to win the tie 3-0.
In the first tie of the day in Sydney, China beat Belgium 2-1 in a battle that was decided by a match tiebreak in the mixed doubles.
World No.5 Elise Mertens got Belgium off to a good start with a 6-2 6-2 win over Zhu Lin, before Zhang Zhizhen levelled the tie with a hard-fought 6-7 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 victory against Zizou Bergs in a match that lasted two hours and 53 minutes.
China's pairing of Zhu and Zhang took out the deciding mixed doubles 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 10-6 (match tiebreak) against Mertens and Bergs.
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