Martin, 34, announced his retirement Monday following a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 setback to No. 31 Fabrice Santoro of France.
"This might be a big mistake, I'm going to be in tears in a moment," he told the spectators, who gave him a standing ovation.
"It's been a pleasure playing in front of you. I'm one of the lucky guys who ran into some people who knew a lot about the game, cared and shared their knowledge with me.
Todd Martin backhands a return in Monday's match, his last as a pro.(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
"Otherwise I would never have been here in the first place. I thank you all."
When one spectator shouted, "What are you going to do now?," Martin replied: "Sleep."
Martin reached two Grand Slam finals during his ATP career, losing the 1999 U.S. Open to Andre Agassi and the 1994 Australian Open to Pete Sampras.
Four years after helping the United States capture the 1995 Davis Cup, he reached as high as fourth in the world rankings.
Martin, who ranked 96th at Flushing Meadows this year, also served two stints as president of the ATP Player Council.
"Obviously, it's been a huge part of my life," he said. "Probably through my life, the greatest success, I guess, it's given me more self-esteem in me as a person than any other one thing in my life.
"I've been thinking about it for probably a couple of years. I'm sure had I had better results in the past couple of years, I wouldn't have thought about it as often.
"The last few months, it's gone from a lot less thinking to a lot more feeling and that makes it fairly clear."
with files from Sports Network
