Amelie Mauresmo reveals French Open have cancelled farewell ceremony for Rafael Nadal after 14-time champion refused to confirm if it will be his last appearance in Paris

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo admitted the French Open had to cancel a planned farewell ceremony for Rafael Nadal after the 14-time champion refused to confirm it would be his last appearance here in Paris.

The 37-year-old has heavily hinted that this would be his last year on tour and was given a lavish farewell at the Madrid Open.

But the Spaniard, who opens his campaign against number four seed Alexander Zverev on Monday, said on Saturday he does not want to “close the door 100 percent” on a return to Roland Garros.

“As you can imagine, we had something planned for him,” said former world champion Mauresmo. “But he told us that because he doesn’t know if this won’t be his last Roland Garros or not, he wants to leave the door open for him to come back next year.

“So obviously we’re not going to force him to do anything, it’s his decision when he wants to have a good ceremony, a good send-off, so we’re not going to do that this year. That’s his wish, even though we were ready to push the button, we’re obviously going to respect what he wants and make sure we’re ready when he wants to do it – whenever he wants to do it.”

Amelie Mauresmo says the ceremony was canceled because Nadal refused to confirm it would be his last appearance in Paris

Nadal has won the French Open trophy fourteen times, most recently in 2022

Mauresmo added that there are also no plans for a tribute to Andy Murray

Andy Murray has also been vague about his retirement plans, with Mauresmo confirming that they have also withdrawn plans for a tribute to the 2016 finalist.

‘Same as Rafa!’ she said. ‘I called him beforehand and he said: “I don’t know, I’m not sure, let’s do nothing.”

“It seems like they don’t know, so we respect that.”