Published on October 24, 2024 at 9:23 a.m.
Ill, Gaël Monfils withdrew from his round of 16 in Vienna, where he was due to face Lorenzo Musetti this Thursday.
There are no more French people in the draw for the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna. There were two of them at the start of the week, and they faced each other in the first round. Gaël Monfils beat Quentin Halys 7-6, 6-3 on Tuesday and won the right to face Lorenzo Musetti in the round of 16 this Thursday. But the French veteran withdrew from this match because he was ill. Beaten by the Italian, without managing to take a set from him, in the second round of Roland-Garros and the Olympic tournament this year, Monfils will not have the opportunity to take his revenge in the Austrian room. It is therefore the world No. 17 who will have the formidable honor of challenging Alexander Zverev, seeded No. 1 and winner on Wednesday against Marcos Giron in his 61st match of the year, a new career record. If the German had beaten the Italian by retirement during their first confrontation, in Madrid in 2022, Musetti had taken his revenge in the quarter-finals of Paris 2024 on August 1, thus causing Zverev to lose his Olympic title.
A twelfth Rolex Paris Masters to end the season
Gaël Monfils now has a few days to recover from his illness before heading to Paris, where he received an invitation to compete in the Rolex Paris Masters next week. The Frenchman must take part for the twelfth time in his career in the Paris tournament, of which he played the final in 2009 (defeat against Djokovic) and in 2010 (defeat against Söderling). This will normally be his last tournament of the year, thus completing a 21st season on the ATP circuit. A mixed season, which began at 75th place in the world and which will end, barring a major exploit at the Accor Arena, around 50th place. Gaël Monfils won five Grand Slam matches (3rd round at Wimbledon) and played in the semi-finals in Doha and Mallorca. But above all he achieved his dream (even if he did not shine) of competing in the Olympic Games at home, a goal he had set for himself after his serious foot injury, which caused him to fall near the 400th place in the world.
