Best of 2025
Gasquet and Fognini will say goodbye in 2025
Edmund, Bopanna, and Dodig appear in part two
December 8, 2025
Getty Images
Richard Gasquet retires at Roland Garros this year.
Written by ATP Staff
To mark the end of another exciting season, ATPTour.com presents our annual “Best of” series, which will reflect the most interesting rivalries, games, comebacks, upsets and more. Diego Schwartzman and Fernando Verdasco lead Part 1 of our “Best” Retirement Stories. Today, Richard Gasquet and Fabio Fognini will appear in the second part.
Richard Gasquet
The cover of the February 1996 edition of Tennis Magazine featured a then nine-year-old Gasquet preparing to hit a one-handed backhand. The title is: “Does the French champion take part?” In English, this means: “The champion of France awaits?” Twenty-nine years later, the Frenchman left the sport as champion, losing to Jannik Sinner in his final game at Roland Garros.
In 1999, Gasquet won France’s prestigious Les Petits As international junior championship, and three years later he became the world’s number one junior player at the age of 16. But the Frenchman first made a splash earlier that year when, aged just 15, he made his ATP Tour debut and won at the 2002 Rolex Monte Carlo Masters.
Gasquet first broke into the top 100 of the PIF ATP rankings on September 29, 2003, when he had just celebrated his 17th birthday. From April 18, 2005 to January 14, 2024, he entered the top 100 for nearly 19 consecutive years, rising to a career-high No. 7. According to the Infosys ATP Win-Loss Index, the 38-year-old has 609 tour-level wins, more than any Frenchman on record.
Throughout his career, the 16-time ATP Tour champion has become known for his artistic game, creating incredible angles with his one-handed backhand and hitting aggressive shots with his forehand when needed. Gasquet is meticulous about his strategy and grip, readjusting his grip at almost every transition more than anyone else on the ATP Tour.
Fabio Fognini
Fognini has entertained fans around the world since making his tour debut in 2006 in Buenos Aires, where he pushed former world No. 1 Carlos Moya into three sets. Like many great performers, Fognini seems to take pleasure in teasing us with his talent, mocking us with his willfulness, and then ultimately thrilling us with his bursts of talent.
Like the flawed heroes of Greek tragedy, Fognini possesses both heroic qualities and glaring weaknesses. Fognini seems to be in a constant battle with his inner self more than his external opponents, but he often delivers.
The Italian ended his career with 426 Tour-level wins. The 38-year-old has climbed to a career-high No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings and has won nine ATP Tour titles, including the only ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte Carlo in 2019. Fognini has 17 career victories against top-10 opponents, highlighted by his five-set comeback victory over Rafael Nadal at the 2015 U.S. Open and victory over 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 signature performance to push Carlos Alcaraz to five sets in an epic first-round match.
“It’s the perfect way to say goodbye to the sport,” Fognini said at Wimbledon. “I was able to play in an era that will probably always be the best in the sport. I played against Roger, I played against Rafa, I played against Noel. Winning a Grand Slam was impossible for me. I have to be honest.”
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Fabio Fognini waves goodbye to the Wimbledon crowd. Image source: Getty Images
Kyle Edmond
In 2018, Edmond was near the top of his game. The Briton won his first title in Antwerp, reached a career-high 14th in the PIF ATP Rankings and reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open. At that event in Melbourne, he defeated then-world No. 12 Kevin Anderson in the first round and in the quarter-finals he defeated World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov, who had just won the Nitto ATP Finals.
Edmund won his second Tour title in New York in 2020, but the 30-year-old has battled injuries over the past five years and underwent surgeries in November 2020, March 2021 and May 2022.
“It’s hard to look back on this journey and try to size it up as much as possible. It feels right about the past and my injuries,” Edmund said. “Especially around 2020 and 2021, I had three surgeries and spent four or five years trying to come back, and I experienced ups and downs along the way.
“but [I] no way [was] Totally able to get back to my goals and objectives. This was the main reason for this decision, but over the coming weeks and months it will be a good time to reflect, do different things, spend more time at home with family, and appreciate the journey. “
Rohan Bopanna
Bopanna, the former PIF ATP doubles number one, ended a 20-year career in November. The Indian star has won 26 tour-level doubles titles in his career, including the 2024 Australian Open title with Matthew Ebden. With this victory, Bopanna became the world’s number one for the first time and became the oldest world number one at the age of 43.
Bopanna grew up in the quiet coffee-growing region of Coorg, India, far from the tennis hub and with limited opportunities to compete professionally. 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 witnessed first-hand in the Davis Cup dressing room.
Their influence, coupled with his partnership and friendship with Sania Mirza, particularly their run to the 2023 Australian Open Mixed Doubles final, has helped him rise from broken local courts to the top ranks of the ATP Tour.
“To come from a small town like Coorg to all over the world and become the number one in the world, especially at the age of 43, it’s been a journey far beyond what I imagined,” Bopanna said. “Above all, I am most grateful to every partner, every game, every city and everyone who has supported me over the years.”
Ivan Dodig
Dodig, a champion on the doubles circuit for more than a decade, ended his career in August at the U.S. Open. The 40-year-old is ranked No. 29 in the PIF ATP Rankings and No. 2 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings and has won 24 tour-level doubles titles, including three Grand Slams and six ATP Masters 1000 crowns.
“Usually players break through the top 100 when they are 20, 21 years old. I broke through the top 100 [when I was] Almost 24 years old. But after that, I stayed there for a long time, ’15, ’16,” Dodig told ATPTour.com in November. “I achieved a lot, played a lot of tennis in singles and doubles. So it’s been a pretty long career for me and I’m really happy with it and I’ve really enjoyed myself over the years. “
In singles, the Croatian’s greatest success came in 2011 when he won his only ATP Tour title in his hometown of Zagreb. In the same year, Dodig defeated the then world No. 2 Rafael Nadal 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in the ATP Masters 1000 event in Canada, and has defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic many times in his career.
Tim van Rithoven
Van Rijthoven became one of the sport’s greatest underdog stories when he defeated three top-15 players to win the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2022. Van Rithofen entered that week at No. 205 in the PIF ATP Rankings but had not recorded any tour-level match wins. He reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. The 28-year-old ended his career in July due to an ongoing elbow injury.
“Due to a stubborn elbow injury that failed to recover despite various rehab and medical treatments, I was forced to say goodbye to the sport that I have played my whole life,” Van Rithoven wrote on social media in July. “I wanted to see it differently. I wanted to say goodbye on my own terms, with a racket in my hand and an audience in the stands. But sometimes the body decides differently than the mind does. However, I look back with incredible pride and gratitude.”
