PARIS.- The tennis legend Novak Djokovic he resigned from Monte Carlo Masters 1000announced this Friday the organization, which will invite the French veteran Gael Monfilsin his last season, and his compatriot Moïse Kouaméthe revelation of 17 years.
“Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the tournament,” indicated the event’s Instagram account (April 5-12) without specifying the reason for his absence.
The 38-year-old Serbian, currently number three in the ranking ATPhas won twice in Monte Carlo, a tournament that traditionally opens in Europe the clay court season and whose high point is the Roland Garros (May 24-June 7), where he will seek a 25th Grand Slam title.
Finalist in the Australian Open in January before the winner Carlos Alcaraz“Djoko” has just fallen in the round of 16 of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 before the British Jack Draper.
He then resigned from Miami Masters 1000 due to an injury to his right shoulder.
According to the ATP website, Djokovic should return in the Madrid Masters 1000 (April 22-May 3).
The Monte Carlo organization granted invitations to Monfils and Kouamé: the former, at 39 years old, is living his last season on the circuit.
The former world number 6, currently 153rd, is one of the few Frenchmen to have reached the final in Monte Carlo: it was in 2016 and he lost to Rafael Nadal.
Kouamé (325º) is, at 17 years old, the youngest player in the top 500. The latest jewel of French tennis achieved his first victory in a Masters 1000 in Miami.
Sabalenka and Gauff meet again
The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka will fight against the local Coco Gauff for his second consecutive trophy at the Miami tournament, in which Jannik Sinner accelerated this Thursday to the men’s semifinals and the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo took the exit door.
Sabalenka and Sinner, champions this month in Indian Wells, continue to approach the prestigious double of American titles known as the “Sunshine Double.”
The Belarusian, world number one, claimed the same victim in Thursday’s semifinals as in the Indian Wells final, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina.
If in the Californian desert she needed to reach the final tie break, in her Miami fiefdom Sabalenka dispatched the world number two 6-4, 6-3.
Gauff and Sabalenka share victories in their previous 12 duels, but the American prevailed in the last final between them last year at Roland Garros.
