While qualifications for Roland-Garros began on Monday May 16, the tournament itself does not start until Sunday May 22. We already know that France will not be able to count on Gaël Monfils among the men’s chances, the fault of a health problem. The player himself announced his withdrawal on Twitter.
On his account, the 35-year-old athlete therefore revealed his upcoming absence from the Parisian Roland-Garros tournament, he who had the hope of appearing there for the 16th time in his career. He writes : “Hello everyone, I regret to announce my withdrawal from the Open Parc de Lyon and Roland Garros next week. I have been hampered since Monte Carlo by a heel spurs in my right heel which prevents me from moving on the court. So I made the decision to make a small intervention to deal with the problem so that I could resume the tournaments as soon as possible. I will let you know my recovery date as soon as possible.“
The Parisian player, French number 1 and number 22 in the world rankings, had made a convincing start to the season by winning in Adelaide and advancing to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. But when the clay-court season opened in April, he gave up playing in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, already hampered by his foot. Then he wrote off Rome by advancing the “persistent heel injury“. In between, after”ten full days“Stop, he only played two matches in Madrid, where he was stopped by the world No.1, now dividing Novak Djokovic (6-3, 6-2), in the second round.
If Gaël Monfils must be sad to give up Roland-Garros, whose 2022 edition will end on June 5, we imagine however that the player has enough to keep his spirits up. Indeed, on Sunday May 15, he announced happy news to his subscribers on social networks: he will become a dad. The athlete and his wife, Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina – ranked 32nd in the WTA – are expecting their first child, a daughter, whose birth is scheduled for October.