{"id":269372,"date":"2025-10-01T14:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/269372\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T14:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:25:10","slug":"tennis-star-gael-monfils-to-retire-after-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/269372\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis star Gael Monfils to retire after 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

French tennis great Gael Monfils will take his final bow at the end of next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fan favorite and former sixth-ranked player in the world plans to retire after the 2026 season, he announced Wednesday in a heartfelt statement posted on social media.<\/p>\n

On the heels of his 39th birthday, Monfils declared it was the \u201cright time\u201d to walk away and he was \u201ctremendously at peace with my decision.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gael Monfils returns the ball to Roman Safiullin during their men\u2019s singles first round tennis match on day three of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 26, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He thanked his family and friends, colleagues and coaches, along with everyone who cheered his name along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI held a racket in my hands for the first time at two and a half, and began playing professionally at 18,\u201d Monfils wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe opportunity to turn my passion into a profession is a privilege I have cherished during every match and moment of my 21-year career. Though this game means the world to me, I am tremendously at peace with my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

He walks off the court with 13 championships to his name, competing against some of the most prolific names in the sport.<\/p>\n

Monfils captured his latest title in January at the age of 38 years and 132 days old, eclipsing Roger Federer as the oldest player to win an ATP Tour title.<\/p>\n

The victory came two decades after he won his first.<\/p>\n

French tennis star Gael Monfils was a perennial fan-favorite throughout his 20+ year career. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He may never have won an elusive Grand Slam title during his career, but Monfils isn\u2019t concerned with what he \u201ccould have\u201d or \u201cshould have\u201d done. He\u2019s walking away without regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs those who know me can attest, I\u2019ve never thought this way, and frankly I\u2019m far too old to start doing this now,\u201d he wrote. \u201cLife is too short. Believe me when I say that I have no regrets.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I do have is the feeling that I have been lucky,\u201d he added, \u201cinsanely, stupidly, lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monfils is the final member of the French \u201cMusketeers\u201d to call it a career, joining Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet in retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gael Monfils in August 2025. MediaPunch \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n

While winning one more title would be a storybook ending, Monfils enters the victory lap of his legendary career with only one true goal in mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo enjoy every minute, and to play each match like it\u2019s my last,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French tennis great Gael Monfils will take his final bow at the end of next year.\u00a0 The fan…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":269373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[156,56503,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-269372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-france","9":"tag-gael-monfils","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115299373829628457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}