France's 'New Musketeers'are nearing the end as Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retire, so what comes next?

If Roger Federer had the dream farewell from tennis alongside his greatest rivals at the Laver Cup, Gilles Simon probably thought he had the next best thing this week.

Playing what he might have expected to be the last match of his career against Andy Murray at the Paris Masters, Simon was watched in the stands by the other three members of France’s ‘New Musketeers’ - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet.

Simon, Tsonga, Monfils and Gasquet grew up together as juniors, came through the professional ranks together, and have been the faces of French men’s tennis for the last 15 years.

At times they have all been in the top 20 in the world rankings, but no longer. Two are now retired - Simon and Gasquet - and two - Monfils and Gasquet - are 36 years old.

Gasquet still has his silky single-handed backhand and Monfils looked as athletic as ever in the 11 matches he has played this year, but if it’s not the end of an era for French tennis already, there’s not long left.

And when Gasquet and Monfils follow their fellow musketeers into retirement, what comes next?

Right now there are no obvious successors ready to challenge for titles.

The highest-ranked male French player at the moment is world No. 42 Arthur Rinderknech. Along with 26-year-old Rinderknech there are just two other French players in the top 50 (world No. 43 Adrian Mannarino and world No. 46 Monfils).

“Let's not hide the truth: it's a bad time for French men’s tennis if you compare it to the previous one,” says Eurosport France’s Maxime Battistella.

“There are many players in the top 100 and maybe they need time to reach their full potential, but in the next year or two, I'm not very optimistic.”

There appears to be decent depth, but no headline names, and few youngsters seemingly poised to step up.

Hugo Gaston and Ugo Humbert are the only French players under the age of 25 in the top 100 and neither has kicked on as might have been expected.

Gaston, 22, looked to be making progress towards the end of the 2021 season with wins over Pablo Carreno Busta and Carlos Alcaraz in Paris. But his form this season has been patchy and he’s managed just 10 wins on tour.

Humbert, 24, has been as high as No. 25 in the world rankings and has wins over Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. In 2020 he won the Auckland Open and European Open but this season he has had injury issues and has dropped down to playing on the second-tier ATP Challenger Tour.

Lucas Pouille, a former top-10 player, is only 28 years old but has plummeted down the rankings and is now outside the top 300. His loss of form remains something of a mystery considering he made two Grand Slam quarter-finals in 2016 and the Australian Open semi-finals in 2019.

Behind Gaston and Humbert, last year’s French Open boys’ champion Luca van Assche, 18, is just outside the top 200 after making a couple of ATP Challenger Tour finals this year. Arthur Fils, who lost to Van Assche in the boys’ final at the French Open, is also 18 years old and is No. 308 in the rankings.

Could Rinderknech be the one to carry the torch for a few years until Van Assche or Fils are better equipped to compete on the ATP Tour? He made his first ATP final earlier this year in Adelaide, having played college tennis at Texas A&M University and only breaking into the top 500 at the age of 23.

“Rinderknech is a solid player and strong mentally,” says Battistella. “But does he have enough weapons to be top 20 or higher? I doubt it.”

The New Musketeers are undoubtedly a hard act to follow.

Even though they may have been criticised for not ending France's long wait for a male Grand Slam winner, one of them might well have done were it not for the era they were playing in. They were all ranked within the top 10 at points in their careers and all except for Simon reached at least the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. Monfils and Gasquet have made five Slam semi-finals between them and every time they lost to one of the Big Four. Tsonga is the only one of the four to make a major final at the 2008 Australian Open when he lost to Novak Djokovic.

“We can't complain about their achievements,” reflects Battistella.

“They had the talent to win at least one Grand Slam and when you see a guy like Stan Wawrinka who has done it, there are some regrets, mainly for Tsonga, but the Big Four were so dominant that you have to put things in perspective.”

At next year's French Open it will be 40 years since Yannick Noah became the most recent Frenchman to win a Grand Slam title.

Monfils might still remain the best chance to end the drought, or at least help bridge to the next generation. He looked sharp and strong at the Australian Open early in the season, when he pushed Matteo Berrettini to five sets in the quarters. He said afterwards that despite his advancing years his Grand Slam ambitions are still alive.

“I need one time...I won't win 20, but one time, just one time I need. I'm working for this," said Monfils. "I still believe I can do it. It's hard. It's been 20 years that I'm not doing the good thing, but who knows?”

Former Grand Slam semi-finalist Nicolas Escude, who is now the technical director of the French tennis federation, thinks all is not doom and gloom with French men's tennis.

“Is this alarming? Yes, compared to what we have known, but we must not see either the dark side of things,” he said ahead of this week's Paris Masters.

“There are also great things happening, there are great performances, great progress. I do not think that French tennis is necessarily in its place. We're not absent from the top 100, but it's true that up there, we don't have a representative.

“We're working on it and we'll achieve our goals soon.”