Known as the "French General", the Épinal-native spent 20 months at the top of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) men's rankings between 2009 and 2018.

He holds the record of being the oldest ever world number one at 35 years and two months old.

Throughout his 22-year career he reached five World Championship finals.

In 2015, Gaultier ended a run of four straight final defeats with a victory over Egypt's Omar Mosaad in the United States to become only the second Frenchman to experience World Championship glory after Thierry Lincou in 2004.

"After 22 years being on the PSA World Tour, today I have decided to retire," said Gaultier.

"It has been a long road with lots of fantastic and amusing moments and some bumps on the way.

"As a kid, I wanted to be a professional squash player and I feel very lucky to have done my passion as a job.

"I really enjoyed all the hard work throughout these years to try to become the best player I could possibly be.

"I’m fortunate to say that I achieved most of my squash career goals, of course I would always want more, but at least I lifted some of the most prestigious and beautiful trophies, bringing my childhood dreams to fruition."

Gaultier suffered a career-threatening knee injury in late 2018, which required two surgeries to fix.

After 15 months of gruelling rehab, he made a return at the 2020 Tournament of Champions beating then world number 15 Mosaad once more.

Gaultier’s final appearance on the PSA Tour came at the 2020-2021 World Championships in Chicago in July where he fell to Welshman Joel Makin in the last 32.

"Greg spent two decades competing at the highest level of professional squash and is without a doubt one of the most charismatic and popular characters the sport has ever seen," said PSA chief executive Alex Gough.

"Greg will be remembered by those that played him as probably the toughest player to breakdown on the court.

"His unwavering commitment, incredible fitness and mental strength saw him break a number of the sport’s long-standing records as well as break new ground for French squash, while his emotional comeback last year after 15 months on the sidelines made for one of the most heart-warming spectacles in squash in recent years.

"I want to thank Greg for his contributions to the PSA Tour over the past 22 years and on behalf of the PSA, I would like to wish him all the best for the future."