Gael Monfils played his last Grand Slam match Thursday night at Louis Armstrong Stadium, losing to No. 14 seed Learner Tien 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the US Open, ending a career in the majors that stretched across 201 matches and 131 wins, the most by any Frenchman in Grand Slam history.
The 40-year-old Frenchman was presented with a framed photograph of himself after the match and watched a video montage of his best US Open moments before addressing the crowd. He said it had been a long ride, that he had been coming to New York since the 2003 juniors, and thanked the crowd for the love they showed him. He called the New York crowd his second-best behind Paris, which he described as high praise. He said it had been an absolute honor to play throughout the year, to try to perform his best tennis and also give the crowd a great show.
What Monfils was
Monfils was among the best athletes to play professional tennis, a player whose speed, retrieval and sheer physical ability made him exceptional even in a sport full of exceptional movers. He won three consecutive boys Grand Slam titles in 2003 at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, making the sport look easy with a languid athleticism no one else in the game matched. No one covered the baseline in as few strides. No one retrieved balls as effortlessly.
He withstood serious knee injuries to become a regular top-10 player and won 13 titles during his career. He reached two Grand Slam semifinals. Some felt he never fully converted his physical gifts into the results they suggested, but his charisma and entertainment value were without question among the best the sport has seen.
A semifinalist at the US Open in 2016, he has held packed arenas in his hands for decades, including on Thursday night, where wife Elina Svitolina watched courtside and the crowd remained with him throughout.
The match itself
Tien, coached by former French Open champion Michael Chang, was too consistent and too quick, twice the age advantage notwithstanding. They had met in Montreal last month, where Tien won in a deciding set. Thursday was straight sets. Tien targeted the backhand repeatedly to draw errors and mixed in drop shots, which he later acknowledged were almost cruel in the circumstances, while the Frenchman still produced his characteristic highlights and fought through the third set to the end.
His Grand Slam career ended with a forehand into the net. He thanked the umpire as he left the court.
Tien said playing Monfils in Montreal had helped ease his nerves for the rematch, that he really did not want the greatest comeback of all time to happen to him on this night, and that it was very special to win in his home country. He said it was an honor and apologized, with some warmth, for drop-shotting Monfils so much.
What comes next
Monfils will play additional tournaments before concluding his career at the Paris Masters on home soil. The New York adventure he described is complete.
