Gael Monfils was forced to withdraw from the 2023 Roland Garros ahead of his second-round match against Holger Rune.
In the first round of the clay-court Grand Slam, the Frenchman showed everyone his undeniable fighting spirit. In a late-night thriller, Monfils defeated Sebastian Baez in five sets to set up a second-round match with the sixth-seeded Holger Rune.
After the win, he broke down in tears, but those were tears of happiness. Only a few hours later, those tears likely changed to tears of sadness as Monfils announced that he wouldn't be able to continue at the 2023 Roland Garros.
The French player announced that a wrist issue won't allow him to continue playing, meaning he had to withdraw from his match against Rune, which was supposed to be the last match on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
"Actually, physically, I'm quite fine. You know, I was quite happy this morning. I woke up quite good. But I had the problem with my wrist that I cannot solve. Felt it during the match. Actually the whole match today."
"And unfortunately even we push it till tonight, just come back again for another exam, and yes, wait a little bit. The doctor say was not good to play with that type of injury. Yesterday was actually very risky, and then today definitely say I should stop."
The Frenchman then also went into the details of his injury, which is related to the triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC). He admitted that in his first-round match, adrenaline carried him through the pain, which later became obvious.
"It's the TFCC on my left wrist, which is strained. Yesterday it was hurting, and there is a moment when I called the physiotherapist for a couple of seconds, and then I thought, no, I handled it myself, and I said, No, I don't need that, not necessarily. Then I ended the match with a lot of adrenaline and lots of things."
However, Monfils had to ice the area immediately after the match, and with every hour that passed, it became more and more obvious that he wouldn't be able to continue playing.
"In the evening it was there and we used ice immediately. I thought it was okay. When I woke up this morning, I took a lot of anti-inflammatories. We practiced a little. It was still hurting. We practiced again this afternoon. That was okay."
"But I felt that it was still hurting. So we had to push back again the exams. With the doctor, he was not totally certain. He said now we're going to go for it immediately, we're going to have an MRI. No, don't play."
For Monfils, the French Open is obviously a special tournament, and that's why making the decision to withdraw was very difficult for him.
"I'm not really sure what I feel, but it's more than being disappointed. How many Roland Garroses will I play? That's the question. I don't know what the answer is. How many will I play? So I have just learnt that 30 minutes ago. That's really new. And for the time being I'm trying to digest this."
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