"My final goal is to play until I'm at least forty," hopes Gaël Monfils.

After his first-round elimination at the US Open on Tuesday, Gaël Monfils said he hoped to play for at least another year.

Six days shy of his 39th birthday, French tennis veteran Gaël Monfils said on Tuesday, August 26, after his defeat in the first round of the US Open , that his "ultimate goal" was to extend his professional career to 40. "There are more and more athletes who manage to perform at a good level at 40. And I would like to be one of those athletes," the Parisian said at a press conference in New York.

"My ultimate goal is to play until I'm at least 40," insisted the former world No. 6. Even at this advanced age for a professional tennis player, "I'd like to be as competitive as I was at the beginning of the year," said the man who became the oldest tournament winner on the main circuit in nearly 50 years in Auckland in January, before reaching the last 16 of the Australian Open.

After a "really long" American tour punctuated by three defeats in his first round at the ATP 500 in Washington, the Masters 1000 in Toronto and the US Open, Monfils plans to return to the circuit for the Asian tour, which will begin the week of September 15. Registered for the ATP 250 in Chengdu, China (September 17-23), the Frenchman said on Tuesday that he "really wants to go, because I want to show a different side and try to have a better end to the year than this complicated period for me."

Gaël Monfils is expected to be accompanied in Asia by his new coach Dorian Descloix, who joined his team just before Wimbledon but who initially only committed until the American hard-court tour. "I think he's a great coach," but "I don't want to waste his time," said La Monf.

"He's coming at a time when I'm not doing as well as I can. I would have obviously preferred to play much better for him, because he deserves it, because he's good, it's just me who's bad. We need to talk, but if he's up for it - he's told me so in half-hearted words - I think I'll go with him on the Asian tour," the Frenchman concluded.