23 years after his first match on the main circuit, Richard Gasquet announces that he will end his career after Roland-Garros 2025, when he will be 39 years old.
French tennis player Richard Gasquet, aged 38, will retire after the Roland-Garros tournament in May or June 2025, he announces in an interview published in the newspaper The team this Thursday.
“I am announcing to you that I will stop at Roland-Garros (May 25 – June 8, 2025) next year. I think this is the best time for me to do it. This is the best tournament to do it. It’s magnificent, we’re lucky being French to be able to stop in these kinds of incredible places”explains Gasquet. “I will be almost 39 years old, a canonical age, I never imagined playing so much starting so young”adds the Frenchman who will therefore stop after 23 years of career, he who turned professional in 2002 at only 15 years old.
This racquet genius, on the front page of Tennis Magazine at the age of 9, caused a sensation by winning his first match on the main circuit in Monte-Carlo at the age of 15 against the Argentinian Franco Squillari. With his silky one-handed backhand, Richard Gasquet has won 16 tournaments on the main circuit, the last in Auckland (New Zealand) in January 2023. He reached 7th world ranking in 2007.
Like the other three “musketeers” of French tennis (Gaël Monfils, still playing, Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, retired), Gasquet will not have succeeded in lifting a Grand Slam trophy. He reached three semi-finals at Major: at Wimbledon in 2007, eliminated by Roger Federer, at the US Open in 2013, beaten by Rafael Nadal, then again at Wimbledon in 2015, eliminated by Novak Djokovic.
“The idea of the end became obvious this summer, when I saw that I was having difficulty getting back into the 100” best, explained the current 133rd in the world. “It’s not heartbreaking because I gave everything. I played so much, so many matches… I started tennis at 3 years old, that will be 36 years of training, every day! (…) I cannot give more, quite simply, I cannot go further”he admitted.
If he hopes to participate with a wild card in the Masters 1000 at Bercy (October 26 – November 3), he also plans to qualify for the Australian Open in early 2025, before heading to his last meeting on earth beaten Parisian, that he dreams “with sunshine, on a beautiful court”. Afterwards, in contact with the French tennis federation, he explains that he wants “train young people, go to leagues, to clubs, help French tennis so that everyone progresses”.
