ATP Tour

Gasquet, Fognini wave goodbye in 2025

To mark the end of another thrilling season, ATPTour.com is unveiling our annual 'Best Of' series, which will reflect on the most intriguing rivalries, matches, comebacks, upsets and more. Diego Schwartzman and Fernando Verdasco led Part 1 of our 'Best Of' retirements story. Today, Richard Gasquet and Fabio Fognini feature in Part 2.

Richard Gasquet
The February 1996 edition of Tennis Magazine featured a striking cover in which a then-nine-year-old Gasquet was winding up to unleash a one-handed backhand. The headline read: “Le champion que la France attend?” In English, that means: “The champion that France is waiting for?” Twenty-nine years on and the Frenchman left the sport as a champion, falling to Jannik Sinner in his final match at Roland Garros.

In 1999, Gasquet won the prestigious Les Petits As international junior tournament in France, and three years later, he became the No. 1 junior in the world as a 16-year-old. But the first major splash the Frenchman made came earlier that year when he won on his ATP Tour debut at the 2002 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters as a 15-year-old.

Gasquet first broke into the Top 100 of the PIF ATP Rankings on 29 September 2003, shortly after his 17th birthday. From 18 April 2005 through 14 January 2024, he spent nearly 19 consecutive years inside the Top 100, rising to a career-high No. 7. The 38-year-old earned 609 tour-level wins, more than any Frenchman on record according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.

During the course of his career, the 16-time ATP Tour titlist became known for his artistic game, creating unthinkable angles with his one-handed backhand and playing aggressively with his forehand when he needed to. Gasquet was as meticulous with his strategy as he was with his grip, which he redid at nearly every changeover, more than anyone else on the ATP Tour.

Fabio Fognini
Fognini entertained fans worldwide from the moment he made his tour-level debut in 2006 in Buenos Aires, where he pushed former World No. 1 Carlos Moya to three sets. Like many great performers, Fognini seemed to take pleasure in teasing us with his talent, taunting us with his petulance, and then ultimately thrilling us with his bursts of brilliance.

Like the flawed hero in a Greek tragedy, Fognini possessed both the heroic traits and obvious weaknesses. Fognini seemed to be in a continuous fight against his inner self more than his outward opponents but would often deliver.

The Italian ended his career having earned 426 tour-level wins. The 38-year-old climbed to a career-high No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings and won nine ATP Tour titles, including his lone ATP Masters 1000 triumph in Monte-Carlo in 2019. Fognini recorded 17 wins against Top 10 opponents in his career, highlighted by his five-set comeback win against Rafael Nadal at the US Open in 2015 and victory against then-World No. 1 Andy Murray in Rome in 2017.

The Italian bowed out of tennis in typical Fognini fashion this year at Wimbledon, where he put on a trademark show to push Carlos Alcaraz to five sets in an epic first-round encounter.

"It was the perfect way to say goodbye to this sport,” Fognini said at Wimbledon. “I was able to play in an era that probably is going to be the best era forever in the sport. I played against Roger, against Rafa, against Nole. Winning a Slam for me was impossible. I have to be honest.”

_{^{Fabio Fognini waves goodbye to the Wimbledon crowd. Photo Credit: Getty Images}}

Kyle Edmund
Edmund was near the top of the sport in 2018. The Brit won his first title that season in Antwerp, reached his career high of No. 14 in the PIF ATP Rankings and advanced to the semi-finals at the Australian Open. During that run in Melbourne, he upset then-World No. 12 Kevin Anderson in the first round and World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov, fresh off his Nitto ATP Finals triumph, in the quarter-finals.

Edmund’s second tour-level title followed in New York in 2020 but the 30-year-old struggled with injuries in the past five years, undergoing surgeries in November 2020, March 2021 and May 2022.

“To look at the journey and try and bite size it as much as possible is hard. It just felt right with things and my injuries in the past,” Edmund said. “Especially around 2020, 2021, I had three surgeries and I spent four or five years trying to come back and had ups and downs along the way.

“But [I] never [was] fully able to get back to maybe my goal and my target. That was the main reason for the decision, but over the next weeks and months, it’ll be a nice time to reflect, do different things, spend more time at home with family and just sort of appreciate the journey.”

Rohan Bopanna
Bopanna, the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings, brought the curtain down on a 20-year career in November. The Indian star amassed 26 tour-level doubles titles during his career, including the Australian Open in 2024 with Matthew Ebden. With that triumph, Bopanna rose to World No. 1 for the first time and became the oldest man to do so at 43 years.

Bopanna was raised in the quiet, coffee-growing region of Coorg in India, far from tennis hubs and with only limited access to the professional game. As his talent grew, he drew inspiration from legends like Ramanathan and Ramesh Krishnan, the Amritraj brothers and later Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, whose professionalism he observed firsthand in the Davis Cup locker room.

Their influence, along with his partnership and camaraderie with Sania Mirza, highlighted by their run to the 2023 Australian Open mixed doubles final, helped propel him from cracked local courts to the top tiers of the ATP Tour.

“Coming from a small town like Coorg to travelling all over the world, becoming World No. 1, especially at the age of 43, it’s a journey way beyond what I imagined,” said Bopanna. “The biggest thing, I’m most grateful to each and every partner, every match, every city, and everyone who supported me over the years.”

Ivan Dodig
A consistent champion on the doubles tour for more than 10 years, Dodig ended his career at the US Open in August. The 40-year-old reached No. 29 in the PIF ATP Rankings, No. 2 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings and won 24 tour-level doubles titles, including three majors and six ATP Masters 1000 crowns.

“Usually players break Top 100 at the age 20, 21. I broke Top 100 [when I was] almost 24. But after that, I stayed there for a long time, for 15, 16 years,” Dodig told ATPTour.com in November. “I achieved a lot of things, and played so much tennis in singles and doubles. So it's a quite long career for me, and I’m really happy about it and really had a good time all these years.”

In singles, the Croatian’s biggest success came in 2011 when he won his lone ATP Tour title on home soil in Zagreb. In the same year, Dodig stunned then-World No. 2 Rafael Nadal 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Canada and also earned multiple wins against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic during his career.

Tim van Rijthoven
Van Rijthoven notably became one of the sport’s best underdog stories in 2022 when he won the ATP 250 in ’s-Hertogenbosch by ousting three Top 15 players. Van Rijthoven entered that week as No. 205 in the PIF ATP Rankings, without any tour-level match wins. He followed his title run with a fourth-round showing at Wimbledon, falling to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. He called time on his career aged 28 in July due to a persistent elbow injury.

“Due to a stubborn elbow injury that, despite all the rehabilitation and medical journeys, fails to recover, I am forced to say goodbye to the sport I’ve lived my entire life,” Van Rijthoven wrote on social media in July. “I would have liked to see it differently. I would have liked to say goodbye on my own terms, with a racket in hand and the audience in the stands. But sometimes the body decides differently than the head. Yet I look back with an incredible amount of pride and gratitude.”