Gael Monfils Joins Connors With a Birthday Win at 40

Gael Monfils beat Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 on Tuesday night at the US Open, on the day he turned 40, and became the first man to win a match there at that age since Jimmy Connors in 1992. The Frenchman, ranked 311 and in on a wild card, is playing his 18th and last US Open in a season he has already called his last.

He had said in May that the whole American swing existed so he could still be an athlete at 40. New York paid that wish in full, one night after Stan Wawrinka’s Grand Slam career ended in the same tournament.

A First Set Gone, Then a 6-0 Close

Vallejo, a 22-year-old from Asuncion, Paraguay, took the first set in a hurry on Louis Armstrong Stadium. Monfils had called the start sloppy. He said he did not want to lose in the first round, kept going for the backhand, and felt the match move into cruise control once the rhythm arrived.

The tour match report credited him with 37 winners against Daniel Vallejo. He leapt into a forehand putaway in the fourth set and bowed before the point had even finished, because the building was already on its feet. The fourth set went 6-0. The crowd then sang Happy Birthday during the on-court interview.

THE MATCH ON THE NUMBERS

• First-serve points: Monfils won 79 percent of them after landing only 57 percent of first serves, while Vallejo won 57 percent of his.
• Service games: Monfils held 13 of 15; Vallejo held 7 of 14 and was broken seven times from 19 chances.
• Aces and faults: Monfils hit 5 aces and 2 double faults; Vallejo hit 3 aces and 5 double faults.
• The inversion: a wild card ranked 311 beat a man ranked 60, 251 places above him, after dropping the opening set.

This was his first Grand Slam match win since the first round of Wimbledon in 2025, and it was his 70th major. His best US Open remains the 2016 semifinal, which he lost to Novak Djokovic, the same year he peaked at No. 6. The tournament account posted the leap and the bow before the stadium had emptied.

https://x.com/usopen/status/2094962674169778608

Elina Svitolina, his wife, sat in the stands even though she was due to play the next day. They had already reached the mixed doubles semifinals in their first event as a team, then lost to Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli. When someone asked about a birthday present, Monfils said the watch she gave him was the gift, and that her being there was the better one.

Only Connors Had Done This on a Birthday

The last man to win a US Open singles match after turning 40 was Connors, who did it on 2 September 1992, the day he turned 40. Connors beat Jaime Oncins in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. Oncins was a 22-year-old from Brazil. Vallejo is 22 as well. The calendar rhyme is almost rude.

Connors, a five-time champion in New York, then lost his second-round match to Ivan Lendl, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-0. That was his last US Open. The gap from that birthday night to this one is 34 years.

THE TWO BIRTHDAY NIGHTS

Connors arrived as a former champion still winning tour matches. Monfils arrived as a farewell act. He has 13 tour titles and no Grand Slam title. The leaping smash that fills Armstrong is the same instinct that never produced a major, and that is why the building still comes to see him.

Wawrinka’s Slam Career Ended the Night Before

2026 had already reopened a door that had been shut for a generation. In January, Wawrinka, then 40, reached the third round of a major for the first time since Ken Rosewall did it at 44 at the 1978 Australian Open. The Swiss wildcard beat Arthur Gea in 4 hours 33 minutes after an opening four-set win over Laslo Djere, and the Australian Open called him the first 40-year-old into a major third round since 1978.

On Monday in New York, that run met its end. Wawrinka, now 41 and also in his 18th US Open, lost to Matteo Berrettini 7-6(4), 7-6(3), 6-0. He had needed a late wild card after Patrick Kypson withdrew. He said one of the reasons he kept playing until 41 was to live nights like that in the city where he beat Djokovic in the 2016 final.

THE 2026 SLAM YEAR AT 40

1. January 2026: Wawrinka, 40, wins two Australian Open matches and reaches the third round, the first man that age to do so at a major since Rosewall in 1978.
2. May 2026: Monfils loses his last Roland-Garros match to Hugo Gaston in five sets, 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0, and maps a hard-court finish around his September birthday.
3. 31 August 2026: Wawrinka’s Grand Slam career ends against Berrettini in New York.
4. 1 September 2026: Monfils turns 40 and wins his first-round match, keeping one more slam night on the board.

Both men were given wild cards to say goodbye. Only one of them still has a match left in a major.

How a No. 311 Wild Card Reached Armstrong

After that last night in Paris, Monfils did not dress the birthday as a miracle. He dressed it as a schedule. He wanted the States because he wanted to play until 40, and he joked that being born in September 1986 was poor planning. He asked for a US Open wild card through the French Tennis Federation and listed Montreal as a place he still needed to leave properly. He also wanted to be in Europe for the first school day of his daughter, Skaï, then three.

My wish is to be an athlete who plays until 40 years old. Nico says he’s locked me in until 40, maybe 40 years and a few days, let’s see. Like Stan, like LeBron, like Cristiano, like Ibra, like all the athletes who have managed to continue their sport until the age of 40. That’s what I want to do.

Gael Monfils, after his final Roland-Garros match

The ranking table never signed that speech. He is 4-9 this season in 13 tour-level matches, with no titles. Career record 587-359. He beat Kamil Majchrzak in Montreal, then lost to Tien 3-6, 6-0, 3-6. In Cincinnati he lost to Rinky Hijikata. The wild card was the only way a player at 311 was going to walk onto Armstrong for a night session in the last slam of his career.

THE HARD-COURT PATH HE ASKED FOR

• The wish: play until 40, on American hard courts, because clay had been drying up for him for three or four years.
• The door: a US Open wild card, requested after the French Open goodbye, with the birthday landing inside the fortnight.
• The form: 4 wins and 9 losses in 2026 before Tuesday became a fifth chance to put a slam win on the farewell.
• The close he still wants: Paris, the indoor Masters, as the last chapter after New York.

He got the night he asked for. The ranking of 311 is still the ranking of 311.

Vallejo Walked In Ranked 251 Places Higher

The man on the other side of the birthday was not a qualifier pulled from a hat. Vallejo’s US Open player page lists a career-high ranking of No. 60, dated 31 August 2026, the day before this match. He is 6-foot-1, from Asuncion, and this was his first US Open main draw. It was only his third Grand Slam. He reached the second round at Roland-Garros this year and lost in the first round at Wimbledon.

His 2026 tour record sat at 13-11 coming in, with a career mark of 20-15 and no titles. He won the first set because Monfils’s timing was late and the occasion was loud. Then the occasion became the problem. Vallejo dropped 12 of the last 13 games. First-round slam nights against beloved veterans in New York do that to young players who have never been in the building. The 6-0 fourth set was a collapse as much as it was a show.

Paraguay has had few nights like this one. Vallejo’s prize money for his career is $922,717. Monfils has been on this stage for 18 years. The first set was the tennis match. The last three were the tribute, and Vallejo had to stand inside it.

Round Two Is the Kid Who Asked for an Autograph

Monfils next plays Learner Tien, the Irvine 20-year-old seeded No. 14. Tien is ranked 15, peaked at 12 on 10 August, and already owns their only tour meeting, that bagel-in-the-middle win in Montreal last month. After it, Tien asked Monfils for a signature. He is the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion, a left-hander with two tour titles, and he reached the Australian Open quarterfinals this year.

The age gap is 20 years. The ranking gap is 296 places. Montreal already answered the tennis question. New York is asking whether a birthday crowd can delay the answer for one more round. Monfils told the stadium he always tries to put on a great show, and asked them to keep it going for the second one.

That was definitely very special, to play on the day of my 40th birthday. You guys always make it electric. The atmosphere is unbelievable. I feel great here. I always try to put on a great show, so let’s keep it up for the second round.

Gael Monfils, on-court interview, Louis Armstrong Stadium

He has the watch from Svitolina, the song from Armstrong, and a second-round match against a 20-year-old who already beat him and then asked him to sign the racquet. Connors lost his second round at 40. Wawrinka’s slam career is already over. Monfils got the night he named in May. The kid with the autograph gets the next one.