Top five tennis players who retired in 2025

Several tennis legends have bid goodbye to the sport this year.

2025 has been a year full of retirements in sports, with childhood heroes passing the baton to the next generation. Popular cricketing legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma called time on test matches, while football saw Marcelo and Toby Alderweireld hang up their boots.

Tennis was no exception either, as several prominent names and Grand Slam champions from both singles and doubles arenas decided to bid farewell to the sport. On that note, let’s take a look at the top five tennis players who retired this year.

5. Fabio Fognini

Fabio Fognini announced his retirement after producing one of his best matches in what turned out to be his final match. Against Carlos Alcaraz, at the opening round of Wimbledon 2025, the Italian stretched the two-time SW19 winner to five sets. Despite not winning a match in over a year, Fognini’s performance was a reminder of his abundant talent.

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The 38-year-old, who had previously hinted at retiring next year in Monte Carlo, decided to step away earlier, calling it an emotional but fitting farewell. Fognini ends his career with a 426-396 win-loss record, nine ATP titles, a career-high ranking of No. 9, and a highlight 2019 Monte Carlo Masters triumph.

4. Richard Gasquet

Richard Gasquet retires as one of France’s most accomplished players, with 609 tour-level wins—the most by any Frenchman alongside 16 ATP titles and a career-high ranking of World No. 7.

A three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist and three-time Masters 1000 finalist, he was the youngest match winner on Tour since 1990, claiming his first ATP win at just 15, but not winning a major title will be one of his biggest regrets.

3. Petra Kvitova

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has announced that she will retire from professional tennis after the 2025 US Open. The 35-year-old Czech, who returned earlier this year from a 17-month maternity break, was granted a wildcard for Wimbledon, where she relished one final appearance at her most cherished venue.

A former world No. 2 and winner of 31 titles, the Czech made history in 2011 as the first player born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam and added a second Wimbledon crown in 2014.

2. Nicolas Mahut

Nicolas Mahut, set to retire by year-end, leaves behind a remarkable legacy with 4 singles titles and 37 doubles titles, including five Grand Slam doubles crowns alongside Pierre-Hugues Herbert, with whom he completed the career Grand Slam—only the eighth duo to do so in the Open Era.

A former World No. 1 in doubles and a key Davis Cup contributor, Mahut is also remembered for his loss in the longest match in tennis history at Wimbledon 2010 against John Isner, where he fired 103 aces in the 11-hour epic.

1. Simona Halep

The two-time Grand Slam champion and former World No. 1 Simona Halep was the highest-ranked Romanian in WTA history, spending 373 consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 — the eighth-longest streak ever.

She achieved the world No. 1 ranking in 2017, even before capturing a Grand Slam title, and later claimed major victories at the 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon, where her win over Serena Williams set a record for the fewest unforced errors in a Slam final.

Among her other milestones, Halep’s breakthrough came in 2013 when she became the first woman since Steffi Graf to win six titles in a single season, earning the WTA’s Most Improved Player award. She reached her first Grand Slam final at the 2014 French Open without dropping a set, a feat last achieved by Martina Hingis.

Widely regarded as Romania’s greatest tennis player, Simona Halep’s last match fittingly took place on home soil, where she lost to Lucia Bronzetti in straight sets.

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