Local favourite Gael Monfils has withdrawn from the competition due to an injury while Murray has withdrawn to focus on Wimbledon
Gael Monfils has announced his withdrawal from the French Open, which starts next week. Monfils has been bothered by a calcaneal spur for quite some time and he has missed several events in this clay season. The Frenchman was scheduled to kick off his grass season at the Monte Carlo Masters but pulled out because of injury.
In his official statement on twitter, Monfils wrote – “Hi all, I regret to inform you that I am forced to withdraw from Open Parc de Lyon and the French Open next week. I have been bothered by a calcaneal spur since Monte-Carlo at my right heel which prevents me from moving properly on court.”
He further added, “I have decided to undergo a small procedure this week to treat the issue before returning to competitive play. I will keep you updated about my progress when I have more news.”
Andy Murray joins Gael Monfils in the list of stars missing the French Open
2016 finalist, Andy Murray has also withdrawn from the clay-court Grand Slam in order to focus on Wimbledon. Murray had earlier announced that he plans to skip the entire clay-court season and put all his efforts into the grass-court events this summer.
However, he changed his mind and played at the Madrid Open last week after receiving a wild card where the three-time grand-slam champion reached the third round after victories over Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov.
As of now, Murray’s preparations for Wimbledon are uncertain with the men’s and women’s tours – the WTA and ATP – considering the removal of ranking points for UK-based grass-court events in response to British tennis’ decision to exclude Russian and Belarusian players from playing at their tournaments this summer.
Murray has already entered the draw for the ATP 250 event in Stuttgart in June as he looks to get matches on the grass under his belt.
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