Sliderman Gael Monfils will make his 18th and final appearance at the US Open this month.
By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Photo credit: Matthew Calvis
Sliderman will join Spiderman at this month’s US Open.
Gael Monfils, affectionately nicknamed Sliderman for his acrobatic flights on court, has been given a wild card into the 2026 US Open main draw, the French Tennis Federation announced.
It will be Monfils’ 18th US Open appearance, and his wild card announcement comes a day after the USTA announced its Spider-Man comic collectible giveaway.
Former world No. 91 Léolia Jeanjean has been issued a US Open wild card into the women’s main draw. Under a reciprocal agreement, the USTA grants the French Tennis Federation a pair of US Open wild cards in exchange for two wild cards for American players into Roland Garros.
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The 39-year-old Monfils, a wildly popular player in New York City, will make this his last US Open dance. Monfils, who announced he will retire at the conclusion of the 2026 season, has enjoyed success at the Flushing Meadows major.
In 2016, Monfils scored straight-sets wins over Nicolas Almagro, Marcos Baghdatis and Lucas Pouille to reach the US Open semifinals where he lost to Novak Djokovic. It was one of two Grand Slam semifinals Monfils has made in his career. Three years later, Monfils advanced to the US Open quarterfinal suffering a gut-wrenching 7-6(5) in the fifth-set loss to Matteo Berrettini.
Devoted Flushing Meadows fans will recall Monfils building a two-set lead over Roger Federer in an electrifying 2014 US Open quarterfinal before the Swiss Maestro rallied for a pulsating five-set victory. In that clash, Monfils, chugging Coca-Cola on changeovers, his some spectacular flying forehands and dueled 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer in a shot-making festival. A reminder of that magical night here:
Now ranked No. 347, Monfils made his US Open debut at the 2005 US Open.
In a sweltering five-set clash on an outer court, Monfils fell to a talented, young world No. 97 named Novak Djokovic, 7-5, in the fifth set.
Richard Pagliaro. Richard Pagliaro is Tennis Now Managing Editor. He is a graduate of New York University and has covered pro tennis for more than 35 years. Richard was tennis columnist for Gannett Newspapers in NY, served as Managing Editor for TennisWeek.com and worked as a writer/editor for Tennis.com. He has been TennisNow.com managing editor since 2010.
