This 2026 season is the last year on the circuit of several tennis monuments. The Vaudois Stan Wawrinka will end his career at the Basel tournament, the Japanese Kei Nishikori bowed out a few days ago in Tokyo and Gaël Monfils was initially supposed to put his racket away at home, for the Masters 1000 in Paris.
Finally, it could well be that the Frenchman played the last match of his career at the US Open on September 4. Gaël Monfils is in fact on the list of players already retired from the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency), the body in charge of anti-doping in tennis.
What does this mean? “The players mentioned here have declared themselves retired and will not be able to participate in official competitions unless they have submitted to out-of-competition anti-doping controls for at least six months before the competition in question,” says the ITIA about its list of retired players.
Radio silence on the player’s side
This would therefore mean that Gaël Monfils, winner of 13 tournaments on the ATP circuit, would have retired in silence, without warning the press and his fans. In an interview with “L’Équipe” in October 2025, the Frenchman declared that he wanted to end his career, “in an ideal world”, at the Paris tournament.
The ITIA confirmed the player’s retirement to “L’Équipe”. “He informed us of it; he is now considered retired and is no longer authorized to participate in tournaments. For his part, Gaël Monfils has not yet communicated on his social networks.
