The Ultimate Tennis Showdown, Patrick Mouratoglou’s competition, justified the exclusion of Gaël Monfils this Saturday. At issue: a “playful exchange” leading to a “minor injury” for the tournament supervisor.
Bad boy, Gaël Monfils? Competing this week in Oslo at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS), the competition launched in 2020 by Patrick Mouratoglou to try to make tennis more fun, the Frenchman has visibly gone beyond the rules.
An “injury” for the tournament supervisor
After his defeat against the Australian Alex de Minaur (15-12, 17-8, 16-9), the organization announced its… exclusion from this exhibition tournament. Initially, “a violation of the code of conduct” was mentioned, without further details to justify this disqualification. Faced with the surprised reactions on social networks, the UTS ended up providing more details this Saturday.
“Yesterday (Friday), a playful exchange in the locker room between Gaël Monfils and the tournament supervisor, Stéphane Apostolou, resulted in a minor injury to the supervisor. UTS is 100% convinced that there was no intention malicious on the part of Gaël, but as there was an injury, even minor, to an official, we felt that there was no other solution than to disqualify Gaël.”
“Gaël accepted the disqualification. Gaël and the supervisor parted ways on good terms,” concluded the UTS in its press release. To replace “La Monf”, the tournament called on Lucas Pouille, who was beaten from the start by Benoît Paire. Pointed out by some who see it only as a parody of tennis, this year the UTS brings together Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Holger Rune, Dominic Thiem and Alexander Bublik.
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2024-02-10 13:52:10
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