For his return to the courts since his wrist injury at Roland-Garros, Gaël Monfils was beaten in the semi-finals of the UTS, competition-exhibition disputed in Los Angeles, and finally won by Yibing Wu.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, Gaël Monfils will play his first round of the Atlanta tournament against Thanasi Kokkinakis, a player better ranked than him (88th against 315th), but whom the French had beaten during their last confrontation, in Adelaide in 2022. to compete in the UTS, this competition-exhibition organized by Patrick Mouratoglou.
The Frenchman crossed the group stage by beating Frances Tiafoe in four quarters (each round lasts eight minutes and the points are counted as a tie-break, with a single service, no let, fifteen seconds between the points and the possibility of playing “cards” to, among other things, triple the points), then Alexander Bublik in three quarters, before losing Ben Shelton Two players each win two quarters).
Wu final winner
No need to run to win a point when you’re @Gael_Monfils 😏😜#utstour #uts #tennis pic.twitter.com/8zhOJ0H4eZ
— UTS 🎾 – LA (21-23 July), Frankfurt (15-17 Sept) (@UTShowdown) July 23, 2023
Second in his group, he faced Taylor Fritz in the semi-finals on Sunday, and the American won narrowly: 18-10, 14-15, 9-18, 18-13, 2-0. Even if the rules are very different from those of the ATP circuit, it remains a good match against the world No. 9, on a hard court similar to what Monfils will find in the coming weeks, he who, if his body leaves him in peace, must play Atlanta, Washington, Toronto and Cincinnati before the US Open.
The other Frenchman competing in Los Angeles, Benoit Paire, lost his three group matches, in five sets against Yibing Wu, in five sets against Diego Schwartzman and in three sets against Taylor Fritz. He is ultimately one of those who gave the most trouble to Wu, who won this Los Angeles UTS in five sets against Fritz. The Chinese, 88th in the world, will arrive full of confidence in Atlanta, where he will challenge Corentin Moutet from the outset… before a possible second round against Fritz.
