“He is no longer allowed to participate in tournaments”… What is this bizarre retirement announcement from Gaël Monfils?

We finally understood the character after so many years spent on the circuit. Those moments when, trailing two sets to nothing, Gaël Monfils, in agony, leaned over his shoes to put his laces back on, before launching yet another Grand Slam comeback. But, at 40 brooms, La Monf surprised us one last time, for his last season as a professional tennis player.

While he was scheduled to say goodbye during the Masters 1000 in Paris at the beginning of November, the Parisian will not see La Défense. Nor even Lyon or Vienna, where it was planned that the public would enjoy his arabesques one last time. No, Gaël Monfils and tennis are over. And it’s not even the last of the Musketeers still on the trail who had the leisure to announce it.

At the beginning of October, Itia (international agency for integrity in tennis) put Gaël Monfils on its list of retired players. Information which ended up being revealed, to everyone's surprise, on Tuesday, and confirmed to 20 Minutes by the agency's communications department this Wednesday morning:

“We don't know if it came from the player, his agent or the ATP, but we received notification that the player had retired and that he was being removed from the doping test protocol. It is an administrative formality which does not imply the need for justification. And we don't ask for it. »

The authority did not even want to spare the suspense: there is no chance of seeing the former 6th player in the world give us a sort of resurrection and return by surprise to Paris in front of an ecstatic crowd. “He is no longer authorized to participate in tournaments,” Itia tells us. A retired player must be reinstated in the testing program for six months, without playing, before they can return to competition. »

So it’s really the end for Elina Svitolina’s husband. Far from the courts, far from the popular jubilation which accompanied him to Roland-Garros in the spring, where an evening was entirely dedicated to him, before a final lap on the Parisian ocher with a match in five sets (obviously) lost against Hugo Gaston.

“Even in my wildest dreams, I didn’t imagine it like this,” the hero of the evening savored. I'm not going to lie to you, it was exceptional, crazy luck. In fact, we imagine without really imagining, but what I received is engraved forever. It’s an incredible opportunity. It’s something that will forever be engraved in my heart. »

In his heart too, the ovation and the tribute received during his last dance at the US Open, at the beginning of September, where he still managed to reach the second round before falling to Learner Tien. After broadcasting a video of his highlights in New York on the giant screen, he thanked the American public for all the “love” they had given him. “You are my second favorite audience, after Paris obviously, but you are right up there. It was an absolute honor to play in front of you and give you a great show. »

Gaël Monfils then revealed that he was going towards a new career in finance, in wealth management within a Swiss company. We just thought that the reconversion would take a little longer to be effective, after a last well-deserved ovation at La Défense Arena.