If there’s one thing opponents have always associated with Gael Monfils, it’s his unbelievable sliding and diving ability on court, the very reason he earned the nickname “Sliderman.” But during a practice session at this year’s French Open, one of those trademark slides briefly turned worrying.

While chasing down a drop shot from Joao Fonseca, Monfils slipped awkwardly and crashed onto the clay, leaving spectators concerned for a moment. Fonseca immediately rushed over to check if the Frenchman was okay, a gesture that many fans appreciated.

The French veteran is set to face Hugo Gaston in the opening round of his last Roland Garros run. Back in October 2025, Monfils confirmed that 2026 would be his last season as a professional player, writing: “When you love something so much, it never feels like a good time to say goodbye. But 40 will be the right time for me. My only real goal for the year ahead is simple. To enjoy every minute, and to play each match like it’s my last.”

The practice session was part of Fonseca’s own training for Roland Garros, but his 2026 season has been a learning curve as he deals with expectations following his breakout 2025 campaign.

The 20-year-old Brazilian peaked at No. 24 in November 2025, after claiming two ATP events that season, including the Basel indoor hardcourt title. It has been a grind this year, though. He missed Brisbane and Adelaide due to injury at the start of the season, lost in the first round of the Australian Open, and had to deal with the new reality of defending points rather than simply accumulating them. 

“Now I’m top 25 in the world and most of the players know me,” he acknowledged ahead of this season. “Never in my career have I played a year where I needed to defend points.” He currently sits at No. 30 in the world and will be looking forward to Roland Garros, a surface that suits his game, to kickstart the second half of his season.

The on-court moment Monfils and Fonseca shared goes beyond its face value and encapsulates the generational shift that is taking place in the sport right now: that the two of them were on the same court in Paris, one at the end of a magnificent career and the other still very much at the beginning of what could be a special career. 

Roland Garros rolls out the red carpet for its most beloved showman

Roland Garros went over the standard farewell for Monfils, organising a special mixed exhibition event on Philippe Chatrier in his honour.

Some of the top names in the sport participated in the tournament, including Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Naomi Osaka, Maria Sakkari, Iva Jovic, and former French players Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet. In a fitting ending to the occasion, it was Monfils and his wife, Elina Svitolina, who won the exhibition together. 

Those on that court speak volumes about what Monfils has done for this sport. He did not just share an era with Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic; he lit up every arena he walked into during that era, often making the impossible look routine and the routine look spectacular. His best Grand Slam results were a semifinal at Roland Garros in 2008, where Paris first truly fell in love with him, and a semifinal at the US Open in 2016.

He won 13 ATP titles throughout his career but never the Grand Slam he deserved, and he has always been content with that. “Besides ‘Lamonf,’ I’ve been called ‘The Showman’ over the course of my career, but I want you to know that it was never just a show for the crowd,” he wrote when announcing his retirement. “What you see is joy, pure joy, spilling over.”

He is the last of a generation of French players dubbed the Musketeers, following Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, and Gilles Simon into retirement, having called them “my three musketeers and best friends for life.” He was reunited with Tsonga and Gasquet on the Chatier court for the exhibition, a combination that the French tennis fandom has been waiting for, and dreading. 

The first round clash with Hugo Gaston will be a fitting send-off. Gaston is a favorite in his own right, a Frenchman with a game more in tune with touch and imagination, the very attributes Monfils would prize. But on that day, the entire stadium’s heart will belong to one man. Allez Gael has been the slogan of Paris for two decades. It has a few more chances left.