Thursday, Jan 27, 2022. 1:53 PM
The German Alexander Zverev, world number 3 eliminated Sunday in the round of 16 of the Australian Open, will play the Montpellier“>Open Sud de France in Montpellier (January 30-February 6), the organizers announced on Thursday who granted him a invitation.
On the other hand, the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (world no. 9), initially announced, will ultimately be absent. The 21-year-old prodigy, recent winner of the ATP Cup with his country, probably needs to breathe after his journey in Melbourne and his memorable quarter-final lost in five sets against Russian Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday.
Zverev, defeated by Denis Shapovalov in Melbourne, thus becomes the big favorite of the French tournament which he won in 2017, and which this year will find the public, absent during the previous edition due to the coronavirus crisis.
It will be the first time that a player ranked number three in the world will play in the Montpellier tournament.
At 24, Zverev has nineteen titles on the ATP Tour. Finalist of the US Open in 2020, he won the Masters twice and was crowned Olympic champion 2021 in Tokyo.
Despite the absence of Auger-Aliassime, the field will still look good in Montpellier with the presence of the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (finalist in 2021), the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili (winner of 2 ATP tournaments in 2021) or the Croatian Borna Coric.
On the French side, hopes will rest mainly on Gaël Monfils (no 20), beaten in the quarter-finals in Melbourne and already crowned three times in Montpellier (2010, 2014, 2020).
