Nicolas Mahut Bids Farewell to Tennis in Poignant Paris Parting

By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Photo credit: Rolex Paris Masters Instagram

Tennis’ marathon man took his final lap on the tennis court today with cheers ringing in his ears.

Former doubles world No. 1 Nicolas Mahut played his final match at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The 43-year-old Mahut and partner Grigor Dimitrov lost to Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Hugo Nys 6-4, 5-7, 10-4 before a festive and supportive French crowd on No. 2 Court.

Before the French doubles legend stepped up to serve his final match point, partner Dimitrov urged the crowd to salute him with rousing ovation. Mahut, wiping sweat and perhaps tears from his face with his shirt sleeve, served one final ball. Roger-Vasselin passed Mahut crosscourt ending a brilliant career.

French fans and several current and former players, including Richard Gasquet, Benjamin Bonzi, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Ivan Ljubicic, stood in unison embracing Mahut in final sustained ovation.

Five Grand Slam doubles titles ✅
39 weeks at No.1 ✅
37 doubles titles ✅
2017 Davis Cup ✅
And countless emotional memories ✅@GrigorDimitrov is there as legend @nmahut bids farewell to #RolexParisMasters 🙏 pic.twitter.com/oPRCIP6tJm

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 28, 2025

The owner of 37 career doubles titles, Mahut partnered one of his opponents, Roger-Vasselin, to win his last doubles championship at the 2022 Florence. Mahut and long-time partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert won the Rolex Paris Masters doubles championship in 2019 defeating Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev in the final.

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In a touching move, Mahut and Dimitrov, sitting side-by-side after the match ended, exchanged Lacoste shirts like soccer stars. After signing autographs for fans, Mahut made one final poignant gesture as a pro placing his wristbands on the baseline.

Mahut, who began playing tennis at the age of 5, is famous for playing the longest match in tennis history. At the 2010 Wimbledon, Mahut bowed to John Isner 70-68 in the fifth set in an epic 11 hour, 5-minute encounter. Later, Mahut wrote a book about that marathon titled The Match of My Life.