Murray, Pouille, Simon, Tsonga, Struff and Ymer … From the second day of the Montpellier tennis tournament, the stars are out. Murray fell to Gerasimov, Pouille was eradicated by Gardois Bonzi and Tsonga didn’t fold in entrance of Korda. The desk of the remaining clears up shortly!
Since Monday, tennis greats are in Montpellier for the Open Sud de France. And the slaughter of well-known tennis gamers has already taken its toll.
Murray eradicated
The former world tennis N.1 Andy Murray, undermined in recent times by accidents and dropped again to 121st place, was eradicated in the first spherical of the ATP tournament in Montpellier on Tuesday by Belarusian Egor Gerasimov (N.83), 7 -6 (10/8), 6-1.
Invited by the organizers of the occasion, Murray, 33, supplied good resistance in the first set by securing two set factors in the tie-break earlier than lastly giving up 10-8.
Broken from the begin in the second set, the Scotsman, extra bodily restricted and failing in service, noticed his opponent take off and go away him just one recreation.
Gerasimov, who confronted Murray for the first time, ended the recreation on an ace as he did when successful the first set. The Belarusian will face in the second spherical the Italian Jannik Sinner or the Slovenian Aljaz Bedene.
Andy Murray, winner of three Grand Slam tournaments (US Open in 2012 and Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016) has seen his profession severely disrupted since 2017 by hip and groin accidents and a number of other operations. Physical issues that even led him to contemplate retirement in early 2019.
Finally nonetheless current on the circuit, the Scotsman has nonetheless performed little (7 matches) throughout a yr 2020 upset by the coronavirus pandemic. He himself was affected by Covid-19 final January and was unable to take part in the Australian Open.
The former N.1 launched his yr 2021 final week in a Challenger tournament (2nd division of the ATP circuit) in Biella in Italy. He made it to the remaining however misplaced to Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko, 212th in the world, in a one-sided 6-2, 6-4 match. In Montpellier, it shortly sank.
Pouille launched by the Nîmes Bonzi
Lucas Pouille had no higher luck than Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. For his return to the main circuit after being away from it for almost 17 months, the Northerner was crushed 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 by his compatriot from Gard Benjamin Bonzi (one hundred and twenty fifth worldwide) on Tuesday in the 1st spherical of the Montpellier tournament.
Pouille, apart from fleeting appearances on the Challenger circuit, the second division of the ATP, had not performed a match on the foremost circuit since the starting of October 2019 and his defeat in the second spherical of the Shanghai tournament towards the American John Isner.
In entrance of a modest opponent, from the neighboring division, who benefited from an invite to compete in the Languedoc tournament, Pouille, right down to 79th in the world, solely resisted one set, the first the place he pushed the Nîmois Bonzi to a tie-break.
He then lowered his foot and after saving a match level on the approach as much as the web, he gave in on the second committing a direct foul on the forehand. Pouille, 27, had a white 2020 as a result of a nagging proper elbow harm.
Benjamin Bonzi will face Goffin on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
