“That’s already a small death”: beaten in Shanghai, Mannarino describes what it costs to keep up at 38
Beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Karen Khachanov in the Shanghai third round, three days after knocking out world No. 7 Flavio Cobolli, Adrian Mannarino told L’Équipe that accepting he will never again be as fast or as durable is “a small death in itself” – and dismissed the advice to train less at 38 as nonsense.
Adrian Mannarino, 2025 | © Tristan Lapierre / Tennis Majors for UTS
Adrian Mannarino’s Shanghai run ended on Sunday in the third round, Karen Khachanov beating the Frenchman 6-2, 6-4. It was the first straightforward defeat of a week in which the 38-year-old had beaten the world No. 7.
Mannarino had arrived at the Rolex Shanghai Masters ranked No. 83, having entered the main draw directly as one of the last accepted players. He came through Nikoloz Basilashvili in the opening round, leading 6-3, 2-2 when the Georgian retired with a left knee problem, and then produced the result of his autumn: a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win in 2 hours and 26 minutes over Flavio Cobolli, the No. 6 seed and No. 7 in the world. Khachanov, the No. 26 seed, gave him far less to work with, breaking early in both sets.
Speaking to L’Équipe in Shanghai, Mannarino was asked whether his body would decide when he stops. His answer was unusually direct for a player still winning matches at this level.
“I’m aware that physically I’m in a bit of a decline,” he said. “It’s hard to admit it to yourself, and to accept that you’ll never again be as fast or as durable as you were. That’s already a small death in itself, as a tennis player. I’ll never be as competitive as I was in the past, but I try to make do with what I have. As long as I can keep a good level, play matches like the first two rounds here, it’s quite enjoyable.”
The numbers behind that are plain enough. Mannarino reached a career-high of No. 17 in January 2024 and finished that season at No. 66. He ended 2025 at No. 69. He began 2026 at No. 68, climbed as high as No. 40 after reaching the final in Montpellier, where he lost to Félix Auger-Aliassime, and has slid back to the low 80s since.
He says the schedule itself spares him from dwelling on it. “I don’t ask myself the question too much, I’ve got my head down. Travel, tournaments, it never stops. Maybe it’s lucky that I don’t have enough time to ask myself the right questions,” he said, smiling. “I’m carrying on at full tilt. In this job, if you don’t do it at 100 percent, unless you’re exceptionally gifted, you can’t exist.”
Where he pushes back hardest is on the idea that an ageing player should simply train less and train smarter. Asked whether he has had to scale back in practice, Mannarino rejected the premise.
“I can’t do more than I did, that’s for sure, but I can try to do as much,” he said. “As time goes by and you get older, you feel like doing a bit less. I hear the advice: ‘You have to do a bit less, but higher quality.’ Well, sorry, but that’s bullshit. If you want to be competitive against guys who are 20, you don’t do less.”
He described feeling the effect almost immediately when he eases off. “The moment I put a little less intensity into practice, physically or even mentally, because there are times when it’s harder to find the motivation, I feel it straight away: the results are much worse. You always have to keep the quality up, because the competition doesn’t wait for you.”
Mannarino, who turned 38 in June, has five ATP titles. Khachanov goes on to face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
