Tennis: Gaël Monfils disqualified from an exhibition tournament in Oslo after involuntarily injuring an official

Gaël Monfils found himself excluded due to an “accident”. MAXPPP – Alexandre Dimou

Frenchman Gaël Monfils assures him: it was an "accident, and nothing more”. 

The French Gaël Monfils was disqualified on Friday from an exhibition tournament on Friday for having, according to the organization, unintentionally injured one of the officials of the organization ;event.

"Yesterday (Friday), a playful exchange in the locker room between Gael Monfils and tournament supervisor Stephane Apostolou led to a slight injury" of the latter, indicated Saturday in a post on X (ex-twitter) the organization of the UTS, which takes place in Oslo until Sunday.

Imbroglio and disqualification

If the UTS says "100% convinced that there was no malicious intent on the part of Gaël", there is however "no other alternative than to disqualify him".

I never intended to hurt or do harm

For his part, the former French No.1, now 70th in the world, also wanted to speak out on X, explaining that ;there had been no "violence" from him. "I never had the intention to hurt or do harm and fortunately, Stéphane knows", he wrote Saturday morning, adding that it'was "an accident and nothing more".

Following this disqualification, Monfils – who was only able to play one match, lost against Alex de Minaur – was replaced by another Frenchman, Lucas Pouille in this competition organized for the first time in 2020 by Patrick Mouratoglou.