Monfils ends his Roland-Garros career in a five-set loss to Gaston, retiring at home where it all began
Gaël Monfils, 39, played his last match at Roland-Garros on Monday night, losing 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 to fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston on Chatrier after coming back from two sets down, then needing the physio for his left foot in the fifth. 21 years on tour, 13 ATP titles, two Grand Slam semi-finals, one career-defining bond with the Paris crowd.
Gaël Monfils, Roland-Garros 2026 | © Chryslène Caillaud / PsNewz
Gaël Monfils, the 39-year-old Frenchman whose 21-year career has been one of the most loved on the men’s tour, played his last match at Roland-Garros on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Monday night, losing 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 to compatriot Hugo Gaston in the first round.
The 25-year-old Gaston won the opening two sets without dropping his serve, then watched Monfils, playing the kind of tennis that had taken him to two Grand Slam semi-finals in his career, pull the match back to two sets all.
Monfils was working the court with the variety that has been his signature for two decades. Then his body went. At 0-3 in the fifth he called for the physio, who taped up his left foot. He returned to play out the set, but the legs and the spring had drained, and Gaston ran away with the decider 6-0 to close out the night. Monfils won only seven points in the fifth set.
Monfils, a wild card at this tournament, ranked 218th, announced in October that 2026 would be his final season on tour. Roland-Garros was always going to be the emotional centre of the farewell – the tournament where he reached the semi-finals as a 21-year-old in 2008, where he played some of his most-watched matches across two decades, and where, on Sunday night, organisers had honoured him at a special gala.
Of the 13 ATP titles he won across his career and the two Grand Slam semi-finals he reached (US Open 2016 included), none mattered more to him than the home tournament he was now leaving for the last time.
Gaston, ranked 118 in the world, moves into the second round to face Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo, the 25th seed. The match-up that France will be talking about, however, is not the one ahead. It is the one that just ended.
