Clément Baudouin, Media365, published on Wednesday December 31, 2025 at 9:00 p.m.
Like every year, the professional circuit, whether ATP for men, or WTA for women, sees its share of new faces arriving. At the same time, he also sees his share of players at the end of their careers hanging up their racket and reaching retirement.
Many of them in the year 2025 have decided to end their careers. From well-known names of former members of the World Top 10, to recognized faces in France, this year has held many surprises and twists and turns. And if some decided to come back for another year in order to try to write the book of their professional career a little more, that was not the case for everyone.
Former Top 10s
Among those who had the chance to achieve a very high career and who stopped in 2025, we find in particular Simona Halep. Winner of two Grand Slam tournaments (Roland-Garros 2018, Wimbledon 2019), the Romanian, former world number 1, had a complicated end to her career. Tested positive and suspended at the end of 2022 for doping, Simona Halep (34 years old) will never have managed to find her tennis of yesteryear when she returns to the courts. A career which will end following her defeat against Lucia Bronzetti during the Cluj tournament, at home in Romania.
Victorious on the London lawn of Wimbledon (2011 and 2014), the Czech Petra Kvitova also retired at the end of this 2025 season. With an exceptional career marked by 31 tournament titles and at best a second place in the world in the WTA rankings, Petra Kvitova also reached the final of the Australian Open in 2019, finally losing to Naomi Osaka. After twenty years on the professional circuit, Petra Kvitova (35) bowed out last August following her elimination in the first round of the US Open against Diane Parry.
He is one of those who stood out, particularly because of his small size, but also thanks to his immense talent. Aged 33, Diego Schwartman retired last February, after his defeat in the round of 16 of the Buenos Aires tournament, at home in Argentina. With four tournaments won in his career, a Master 1000 final, and a semi-final at Roland-Garros, Diego Schwartzman has proven to be a formidable opponent on clay. It is precisely after his year 2020 marked by his semi-final against Nadal that Diego Schwartzman achieved his best ATP ranking with an 8th place. A successful career for a very talented player.
Finally, among the former members of the Top 10 who retired this year, we find Fernando Verdasco. The Spaniard was considered very formidable and won seven titles during his career. In Grand Slam, although he never reached a final, he still remained a dangerous player, notably with round of 16 appearances at Roland-Garros, quarter-finals at the US Open or even Wimbledon and especially a semi-final at the Australian Open. Although he was less active in recent seasons, the former world number 7 concluded his career in doubles, alongside Novak Djokovic, last February.
French people have also retired
As for the French athletes, we also find some great names who retired this season. Among the French, Alizé Cornet concluded a great career during the San Sebastián tournament, always pushing back the fateful deadline of this departure date a little further. With three titles during her career, or even a quarter-final at the 2024 Australian Open, Alizé Cornet will still have managed to conquer 59th place in the world for a brilliant career although full of twists and turns.
Another French player who we hoped to see do great things is Caroline Garcia. Especially since the last seasons of the native of Poissy were encouraging, including a victory in the final of the WTA Masters in 2022, as well as a semi-final at the US Open (2022). However, Caroline Garcia has not always had it easy in her quest for stability and continuity and has therefore decided to end her career this summer following her defeat in the first round of the US Open. With eleven singles titles and eight doubles titles, for fourth place in the WTA rankings, Caroline Garcia still had the luxury of two doubles victories at Roland-Garros (2016, 2022), with her sidekick at the time, Kristina Mladenovic.
Another immense talent, Nicolas Mahut concluded his career in Paris by losing in the first round of the Rolex Paris Masters alongside Grigor Dimitrov. A career that the native of Angers will have written in great letter. Winner of four singles tournaments, Nicolas Mahut really came into his own in doubles. Associated for a very long time with Pierre-Hugues Herbert, the two men dominated the doubles circuit, taking the number 1 place in doubles and notably winning all the Grand Slam tournaments: Australian Open (2019), Roland-Garros (2018, 2021), Wimbledon (2016) and the oldest, the US Open (2015).
Finally, he is one of those who were nicknamed “musketeer”, at a time when French tennis was looking for a new star. Richard Gasquet will not have had the track record to match the precocious talent that we knew him to be. Faced with a generation of players of immense talent, Richard Gasquet still won 16 singles tournaments, reaching seventh place in world tennis in 2007. With a victory in mixed doubles at Roland-Garros with Tatiana Golovin (2004), it was at Porte d’Auteuil that the native of Béziers closed the book on his career of more than twenty years spent on the circuit by losing to Jannick Sinner.
