MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — For one last show, Gael Monfils had the crowd chanting his name as he bid adieu to the Australian Open.
There will be no encore at Melbourne Park for the 39-year-old Frenchman, a popular personality around Melbourne Park for decades.
After leading by a set and a break, Monfils lost his first-round match to local qualifier Dane Sweeny 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-4, 7-5 on Tuesday.
It was his 20th Australian Open, his 69th Grand Slam appearance, and a second-round encounter against No. 8 Ben Shelton had loomed for Monfils for much of the afternoon as a capacity crowd at Kia Arena sang and roared.
But 24-year-old Sweeny, who had never previously won a Grand Slam main draw match, simply outdid Monfils at what the Frenchman made a career of doing.
He retrieved at full stretch, he scrambled, he tumbled to the court, and he found a way to hit winners from almost nowhere.
In a break with convention, Monfils remained on court to address the crowd following the winner’s on-court interview.
“For me, my journey started,” long ago, Monfils said. “Now we are 2026 and somehow it’s the finish line.”
Monfils announced before the tournament that this year would be his last on the professional tour, concluding a career that included runs to the Australian Open quarterfinals in 2016 and 2021 and semifinals at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open.
His athletic shotmaking and his relentless ability to come back from breaks down has inspired other players.
A day after Novak Djokovic channeled Monfils with a leaping forehand winner in his tournament opener, Monfils produced one of his trademark jumping forehands late in the first set.
But those classic shots weren’t frequent enough for Monfils, who regularly went to the side of the court for a towel and often slumped over to lean on his racket in a match that went almost four hours.
Monfils has a career record of 22-21 in Grand Slam matches that went to five sets, and when he was up a break in the fourth it appeared this one would go the distance.
But Sweeny didn’t relent. He had the group of supporters in red-and-yellow Life Guards jerseys at one end, mixing it up with the Tribune Bleue crew waving their French tricolors and chanting for Monfils.
Monfils also had his wife, Elina Svitolina, the No. 12 seed in the women’s draw, in his support crew encouraging him. They couldn’t compete with the noise coming from the vocal Aussie fans, many wearing the national sporting yellow and green colors. Some were holding up inflatable kangaroos.
“Thank-you so much for this amazing ride. I’ve got a lot of great memories here. Big battles, quarterfinals,” Monfils said. “Very lucky to play here for many years. Merci beaucoup.”
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