Gael Monfils promised to treat every match of 2026 as though it might be his last. On Tuesday, September 1, the thought became concrete: he turned 40 inside Louis Armstrong Stadium, dropped the opening set to Adolfo Daniel Vallejo and responded with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 victory in his final US Open campaign.
The comeback began with a simple, decisive adjustment. Monfils had spent much of the first set too upright and late to the ball. Once he lowered his base, quickened his feet and took returns earlier, the match changed. After conceding five games in a row in the opener, he allowed only three across the next three sets.
The 37 winners describe part of that transformation. The rest was visible in the way Monfils reclaimed the stage: a jumping forehand, unlikely defence and the ability to summon the crowd between points. At 40, he did not win by trying to look like the player of another era; he won by choosing exactly when he could still play like himself.
The audience understood the weight of the night. After match point, it sang happy birthday to the Frenchman while Elina Svitolina watched from the seats. The celebration recognised a career, but Monfils had just shown that the farewell could still produce real competition rather than ceremony alone.
The result made him the first man aged 40 or older to win a US Open match since Jimmy Connors in 1992. It was his 34th victory in New York, a French record, and added another line to a tournament history whose peak was his run to the 2016 semifinals.
There is also a coincidence suited to New York's appetite for grand stories: Connors earned his win at 40 on his birthday, September 2, 1992. Thirty-four years later, Monfils repeated the feat one day earlier on the calendar and extended the 71st and final Grand Slam of his career.
His next opponent explains why the campaign cannot live in the past. Learner Tien is 20, the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion and the player who beat Monfils in Montreal last month. After that meeting, the American asked for an autograph from the Frenchman he had watched growing up. On Thursday, admiration will stay outside the lines.
Monfils will face a player from the generation for whom he has already become a reference point. It is a handover without ceremony: Tien wants to end the run, Monfils wants to delay the goodbye. The victory over Vallejo ensured that, at 40, he can still write that transition with a racket in his hand.
Sources consulted: the US Open/USTA and ATP Tour. Reporting updated September 2, 2026.