Last dance on red clay: David Goffin, Stan Wawrinka and Gaël Monfils prepare for emotional Roland Garros farewells

For most of the tennis professionals gathered in Europe, it’s spring — a time of blossoming daffodils and tulips, gentle showers, and  red clay courts offering unlimited hopes for the future. But for three esteemed ATP pros it may feel more like fall at Roland Garros in May, for they are in the autumn of their careers.

David Goffin is now a 35-year old outlier, Gael Monfils is 39 and still the showman, and Stan Wawrinka is a Methulasan 41 and still a romantic, in love with tennis. All three are imminently playing in their final French Open, and their departure will sadden legions of fans — and leave a few gaping holes in the game.

David Goffin has such a crafty, silken game that he was nicknamed “the magician” by his peers. He is also an ATP outlier. A former world ATP No. 7 and three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, Goffin has consistently punched above his weight (in boxing parlance, he’s a “super welterweight”).

But now Goffin’s arms are tired, punched out. Ranked No. 236, Goffin is in the midst of an undeclared retirement tour, hoping to compete via qualification or a wild card in his final French Open.

As a 21-year old apprentice pro in Paris in 2012, Goffin lost in qualifying. But he slipped into the main draw as a lucky loser thanks to the last minute withdrawal of — wait for it — Gael Monfils. Goffin then stunned observers by winning three successive matches to become the first lucky loser to reach the fourth round in nearly two decades. The man waiting for him there: No. 3 seed Roger Federer.

If, like me, you had rushed out to Court Suzanne Lenglen upon hearing that an unknown 21-year old Belgian had just taken the first set from Federer, you could be forgiven for thinking this was some kind of a prank. After all, Goffin had said he still had a poster of Federer above his bed back home in Belgium. Also, Goffin was small  (5’10”), but he sure was scrawny (150 lbs). Yet his game was clearly magical, smooth as flowing water, short on power but long on consistency, versatility and strategic and tactical acumen. Magic.

Over time, Goffin proved to be a standout Davis Cup performer — 29-6, with singles wins over the likes of Marin Cilic, Nick Kyrgios, and Jo Wilfried Tsonga. He won six singles titles and, in his finest moment, he qualified for and reached the final of the ATP Tour’s eight-man, season-ending championships where he was beaten by Grigor Dimitrov.

Novak Djokovic has said that Goffin’s game was clean to the point of being “beautiful for the eye.” Rafael Nadal observed that Goffin was a “very complex player.”

But keeping up in a game at a time when power was becoming the standard currency was challenging. While widely celebrated as “the thinking man’s” player, the effort required to win by his wits and professional discipline ultimately took its toll.

“I would have liked to continue for a few more years, but it's complicated,” Goffin recently told reporters in Monte Carlo, after he lost in qualifying. “Tennis is at a very high level right now. You can't be 100 percent all the time — physically, tennistically. You can't just win a few matches and continue. This is not how it works… I realized it was the moment (to retire) for me. I didn't feel good anymore, and once you realize that, making the decision is easy.”

Goffin said that making the decision to quit has left him feeling liberated: “There is something inside that it's released, and I like what I feel.”

Gael Monfils, 39, is the showman. “LaMonf” may never be elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, as he has only been as far as the semifinals in a Grand Slam event twice. Yet he is more beloved and well-known worldwide than the bulk of Famers, and nothing less than an icon in his native France. Ranked No. 200 on May 1st, you can bet Monfils will receive a gilded wild card into Roland Garros. And when his tournament ends, he will be awarded a sendoff worthy of royalty.

Monfils is much more than a showman. He has been a pioneer in the game’s changing demographics as well as a role model. He has carried the hopes of a nation on his slender shoulders and been the author of a multitude of unforgettable moments in the French capital. And has been the cause of much weeping and gnashing of teeth over the course of 17 editions of Roland Garros.

Although Monfils’ best performance in his home tournament occurred in just his fourth attempt — a four-set semifinal loss to then-No. 1 Roger Federer in 2008 — the one that still burns in so many memories took place in 2014. It was a quarterfinal duel with Andy Murray, a see-sawing, five-set thriller. The start was delayed by rain and the match concluded in the near-darkness at 9:42 pm, after Monfils had roared back from losing the first two sets to force a fifth. Alas, fatigue and the loss of visibility ruined the concluder, Murray winning in, 6-0.

Long (6’4”) and lean, Monfils has bagged 13 Tour-level titles. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 6 in November of 2016, but he’s well outside the Top 100 currently. Monfils has been injury-prone despite his sinewy strength: he has missed 13 Grand Slam events and withdrawn from events a record 35 times, and he’s been buffeted by shifting fortunes. Both conditions were caused or abetted by his explosive athleticism and signature, acrobatic style.

Given all that, who would have predicted that this paragon of showmanship would leave the game as the oldest ATP player to win a Tour-level title since venerable Ken Rosewall, 46-years earlier? It’s an honor that Monfils secured when he won the singles title at Auckland in 2025, after having fallen out of the Top 50 at the end of 2024. The search for an explanation for that feat leads directly to Monfils’ wife, the Ukrainian WTA star Elina Svitolina, and the couple’s two-year old daughter, Skai.

Shortly after Monfils’ won in Auckland, Svitolina posted a photo of Gael chowing down on a bowl of the traditional beet soup known in Ukraine — and worldwide — as “borsh.” The caption read,  “Powered by Borsch.” It’s as good an explanation as any for Monfils’ longevity.

Many players have compiled a better record than Stan Wawrinka, but nobody has demonstrated greater love for tennis. The Swiss patron saint of the one-handed backhand, Wawrinka is headed for the Hall of Fame thanks to the three Grand Slam singles titles he earned right smack in the heart of the Big Three era. The 2015 French Open champion, Wawrinka is calling it quits at the end of this year. He will certainly be offered a wild card into the tournament.

Stan Wawrinka grew up on a farm, and his beefy frame and rock-solid game generate images of  “Stan the Man” pitching square bales into a hayloft, or whanging on a frozen trailer hitch on the side of a country road. But when it comes to tennis, Wawrinka is a true romantic whose love for the game is a compelling counter-balance to his essential nature as a realist.

At the peak of his tennis productivity (circa. 2016) Wawrinka was often asked if he felt the Big Three concept, having already been expanded into a Big Four thanks to Andy Murray, ought not include Wawrinka to make it a Big Five. He put the kibosh on the idea every time. He explained it best after the high-water mark of his career, his win over Novak Djokovic in the 2016 US Open final:

“The Big Four, I'm really far from them. Just look at the tournament they won, how many years they've been there. . . How many Masters 1000 (does) Murray have? They have been there since ten years. They have not only been winning, but being in the semifinal, final every time. That's why I'm not there. I don't want to be there. For me, there is no question about that. But I'm trying the best I can with my career.”

Put simply, he has lived by a credo suggested by the words of Irish playwright Samuel Becker, which are famously tattooed on the inside of Wawrinka’s left forearm: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

That Wawrinka can handle the implied disappointments goes to show how much he loves the game of tennis, as well as the “process” of striving — Ever tried! Try again! — to become better in a futile chase for perfection.

After losing to Sebastian Baez in the first round at Monte Carlo, Wawrinka was asked if it was “frustrating” to endure early-round losses. He replied:

“This was not my first warm-up, not my first practice, the repetition, sometimes the traveling… Of course I could talk a lot about all these aspects, but at the end of the day, being a tennis player, it's a chance. It's something amazing... I always dreamed about that. I'm 41 and I'm still doing it because I enjoy that. It's not easy to keep pushing myself, but at the end of the day, I love it. So I'm okay with everything.”

For all three of the men who will soon be bidding farewell to Roland Garros, the words of Beckett might be tweaked to read, “Ever tried. Sometimes won. Always loved."