Hugo Gaston outlasts Monfils 6-0 in the fifth to end showman's RG career
Gael Monfils' storied career at Roland-Garros is over, and it came to an end in - what else? - five sets.
The 39-year-old former top 10 player fell short of completing another pulsating comeback in his favourite playground against fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 on Monday night on Court Philippe-Chatrier, bringing the curtain down on his 19th career appearance at his home Grand Slam event.
With peers and legends including Richard Gasquet, Sebastien Grosjean, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Yannick Noah watching on, the 2008 semifinalist was listless across the first two sets, until he found the special spark that only comes on Chatrier.
Serving at 3-3, 30-30, Monfils hammered an ace, and let out a roar that brought both himself and the 15,000-strong crowd in the stands back to life.
He won eight straight games on the way to claiming both the third and fourth sets, and he seemed positioned to pull off a comeback from two sets down on Paris' main stage for the second year in a row after beating Bolivia's Hugo Dellien in the opening round 12 months ago.
But as the clock struck midnight, there was no magic left for Paris' favourite magician. Monfils had nothing left to give, and Gaston soon eased to the five-set win in 3 hours and 22 minutes.
Monfils won just eight points in the final set, and four of those came in his first service game, where he failed to convert an opportunity to equal the score at 1-1 and, potentially, change the trajectory of his final act at Roland-Garros.
The ending did little to take away from the post-match scene, where Monfils was celebrated with an on-court ceremony.
A tribute video played, with messages from some of his greatest rivals and friends, including Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Stan Wawrinka, and his compatriots Gasquet, Noah, Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Arthur Fils, before he was reunited on-court with his fellow ‘Musketeers’.
His opponent, too, paid tribute when meeting the media afterwards. The 25-year-old Gaston said that Monfils was always generous with time and advice and, overall, enjoyed being part of the experience.
"It was quite a strange feeling when, at the end of the third set, everyone was shouting, 'Gael, Gael,' I wanted to shout with them," Gaston said.
"It is a difficult position, because I used to watch him play on TV. He's quite the showman. I love the man he is. He's a genuinely nice guy. I was expecting for the crowd to be with him, but there was a lot of respect and the atmosphere was good, so that's cool."
While Monfils' stay in Paris is over, with his 40 wins remaining the joint most for a Frenchman at Roland-Garros in the Open era, Gaston's continues against Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo in the second round.
ROLAND-GARROS
18 May - 7 June 2026
