Nicolas Mahut: A career built on heart, spirit & lasting memories
Across 25 years on the ATP Tour, Nicolas Mahut crafted a career that any player would envy. Five Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching No. 1 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings, and a Davis Cup victory for France.
Among the countless memories, one match still stands out — not for a trophy, but for its place in tennis history. Fifteen years on, Mahut can still smile when people ask if he beat John Isner in their record-breaking 2010 Wimbledon epic, which stretched over three days and lasted 11 hours and five minutes.
“It will stay somehow in both categories and that’s not a bad thing. It was both a painful moment and a moment that felt quite suspended,” said Mahut. “It is one of my biggest memories, inevitably. At the start, it did bother me a lot because I was tired of being the handsome loser.”
The Frenchman’s 70-68 fifth-set loss to Isner once felt like a burden. A reminder of coming so close, but ending up on the losing side of one of tennis’ most talked-about matches. But time and perspective have given Mahut peace. He even wrote a book about that extraordinary experience, one that helped him turn heartbreak into strength.
<img alt=”Nicolas Mahut, John Isner” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/10/28/11/35/mahut-isner-retirement-tribute-2025.jpg?w=100%25″ />John Isner defeats Nicolas Mahut in the longest match in history. Photo: Glyn Kirk/Getty Images.
“I now enjoy talking about that match because it was a crazy experience,” Mahut said. “It brought me a lot as a player and as a man. But I can be associated with that match and I can talk about it easily because I know that after that… I managed to win.”
And win he did. Mahut went on to capture 37 tour-level doubles titles, including two Nitto ATP Finals crowns and five major titles with longtime partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert, ascending to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings.
“That’s a source of pride. I perhaps wasn’t strong enough to leave my mark on the tennis world through my record, but I found a way to be associated, for eternity, with Wimbledon, which for me is the greatest [tournament] in the world,” Mahut, who won Wimbledon in 2016, humbly said.
“When I went this year with my son, walking through the aisles, he saw his name after all, because it’s also his. It gives me a little pride and ultimately there’s nothing more beautiful for me.”
That sense of pride and completion surrounded Mahut’s farewell this week at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he played his final match alongside good friend Grigor Dimitrov — a 6-4, 5-7, 10-4 defeat to Hugo Nys and Edouard Roger-Vasselin on Tuesday afternoon.
“We always wanted to do a few double sessions together throughout the last years, but I was honestly never really able to commit,” Dimitrov said of Mahut. “It was the right time. It was the last tournament for him and it made sense. I have a very sentimental relationship with him.
“For so many years, we played against each other. We competed more than once on such a big occasion. So it’s safe to say that it’s a good ending for him.”
Although his doubles achievements stand tall, Mahut was also a formidable singles player. He earned 181 tour-level wins and lifted four ATP Tour trophies, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, triumphing in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (2013, ‘15, ‘16) and Newport (2013).
Armed with a precise serve and slick volleys, Mahut’s attacking instincts made him a threat on fast courts. That translated seamlessly to his later doubles success. Alongside Herbert, he built one of the most accomplished partnerships of the modern era, becoming one of only eight teams to complete the career Grand Slam in men’s doubles.
<img alt=”Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Nicolas Mahut” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/10/28/11/47/herbert-mahut-retirement-tribute-2025.jpg” />Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert triumph at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2021. Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
“Being able to win Grand Slams was for me one of the best memories,” Mahut said. “That’s what I will remember. Beyond the titles, the trophies that I may have, it’s also ultimately everything that happened in order for me to achieve those trophies and victories.
“It’s all the doubts, the questioning, the mistakes I made. That is ultimately what makes a career rich, and mine is very rich in that regard.”
This richness was celebrated in moving fashion in Paris, when his longtime sponsor, Lacoste, surprised him at dawn on the new centre court at La Défense Arena. Over the years, Mahut had saved each polo shirt from every collection since the second year of his partnership with the brand — around 60 in total.
“On Saturday, Lacoste surprised me. I wasn’t aware. I came in the morning, and on the centre court at 6 a.m. there was no one there,” Mahut said. “When I arrived, they had set them [the polos] up on mannequins around the court. Already the fact of experiencing this, to see again some polos that I wore during certain victories, reminded me of memories.”
Mahut’s love affair with tennis began long before his first ATP Tour match. It started in 1991, when a nine-year-old boy in France watched his country lift the Davis Cup trophy. More than two decades later, his dream of replicating that feat became a reality.
In 2017, Mahut won all three of his doubles rubbers during France’s title run and finally held the Davis Cup trophy in his hands.
“It has guided my entire career,” Mahut said of the Davis Cup. “That’s why I wanted to play, because it made me dream. I wanted to be a tennis player after watching the Davis Cup in 1991. That’s what made me want to do it, and I didn’t know what I would have to do.
“However, when I saw them win in ’91 in Lyon, I thought, ‘This is what I want to do, this is what I want to win’, without understanding the effort I would have to put in to make it happen. And in the end, I ended up having the cup at home.”
From the boy who fell in love with tennis watching France win the Davis Cup, to the man who stood atop the world in doubles, Nicolas Mahut’s journey has come full circle. His career — rich in perseverance, humility and joy — is one of both inspiration and heart.
As the curtain falls at the Rolex Paris Masters, Mahut bids farewell not defined by any scoreline, but by a lifetime of grace, grit, and the quiet satisfaction of a dream fulfilled.
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