Gael Monfils withdraws from World Tennis Championships 

After hearing the news that Daniil Medvedev had withdrawn from the Mubadala World Tennis Championships, due to be held this week, many fans were disappointed. To add insult to injury, veteran tennis player and fan favourite, Gael Monfils, has recently declared that he too has withdrawn from the competition.

In case you didn't know

The Mubadala World Tennis Championships is an exhibition tournament held in Abu Dhabi at the very beginning of each tennis year. Whilst it is not an official ATP event and therefore grants the players no rankings points, the event has consistently featured some of the best players in the world. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have won the tournament the most times, with 4 titles apiece.

The heart of the matter

It is sad news that Gael Monfils has withdrawn from the hotly anticipated exhibition event. Whilst, as aforementioned, it is not an official tournament it is seen as a perfect warm-up event for the upcoming season.

The Frenchman was due to play against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who recently expressed his excitement in getting the chance to play against Monfils. However, this is not going to happen and Monfils's replacement, Andrey Rublev, will face the Greek instead.

Whilst Monfils's presence will be missed, the tournament still boasts an incredibly strong line-up with Djokovic, Nadal, Chung, Khachanov, Rublev, and the aforesaid, Tsitsipas all due to play at the event.

It is good news that Rublev was so readily available to travel to the event and though Monfils is a great player, it is an exciting prospect to have another NextGen player in the roster to face-off against Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. With the new line-up, Nadal and Djokovic will play at least one NextGen player each. Although the 2020 season has not started just yet, it will be fascinating to see if the NextGen can continue their challenge to the Big 3 in Abu Dhabi.