Gasquet announces retirement after Roland-Garros 2025

In an interview with L’Equipe, the French player announced his decision to stop competing after the Parisian Grand Slam next year

Richard Gasquet – Roland-Garros 2024 Image Credit: Baptiste Autissier / Panoramic

Lucas Morlier

October 10, 2024

Haresh Ramchandani

French veteran Richard Gasquet has decided to stop. Not immediately, but he has confirmed a farewell date: it will be at Roland-Garros in 2025 in front of his home crowd. He will be the third of the “Musketeers” to retire from professional tennis after Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Down to 133rd in the world rankings, Gasquet has been dropping clues since the beginning of the season about his future retirement before he finally made it official in the columns of L’Équipe.

“It’s the best tournament to do it. It’s beautiful, we’re lucky being French to be able to retire in this kind of incredible place. An end is always complicated, all the former great players have often told me, it’s not easy to announce it. You never know when, how, where… Here, in any case, it goes without saying,” explained the main interested party.

A professional since 2002, Gasquet spent 19 consecutive years in the top 100, or 956 weeks in a row. It’s hard to imagine him back among the top 100 players in the world at Roland-Garros, but it would be a complete shocker if the man from Biterre didn’t receive a main draw wild card for his last hurrah.

Post-Career: Helping young people

Richard Gasquet of France during his match against Yibing Wu of China at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia tennis tournament at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy (Inside/Panoramic)

Winner of 16 ATP singles titles since the beginning of his career, “Richie” does not fear the “little death” that makes athletes so anxious when they stop. The 38-year-old has understood that he has come to the end of the journey as a player.

“It’s not heartbreaking because I gave it my all. I’ve played so much, so many matches… I started tennis at 3 years old, it will be 36 years of training, every day!! I started in the pros in 2002, and I’ll be here 23 years later… Twenty-three years on the circuit! I can’t give more, quite simply, I can’t go any further.”

I want to take care of young French people, to be on the court with 14-15 year olds.
Richard Gasquet on his future plans

The three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist (Wimbledon 2007, 2015 and US Open 2013) already has some ideas: his post-career will be associated with the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and the young people he wants to see grow up.

“I’ve been talking to president Gilles Moretton for a little while now. We had very good discussions about tennis, I get along very well with him. He’s passionate and we have the same vision of things. The same goes for Ivan Ljubicic, director of the high level and Riccardo Piatti. I know that I will be able to help them in their mission.”

“I want to take care of young French people, to be on the court with 14-15 year old guys. When I was training at the CNE, I saw them all come and go!! I have always followed their progress. With Fils, I trained with him when he was 15, I saw right away that he was playing well… There, there are one or two who play really well!”

Before that, there are still a lot of tournaments to enjoy. In 2025, Gasquet will begin his final season with the Australian Open qualifiers and he hopes “To close the loop well.”