Chris Oddo | Thursday March 14, 2019
An achilles injury forced Gael Monfils to withdraw from his quarter-final with Dominic Thiem at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday.
Photo Source: Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
One of the more heavily anticipated matches on the ATP side never came to fruition, as Gael Monfils pulled out of his quarter-final with Dominic Thiem at the BNP Paribas Open just moments before the match was to begin.
Monfils did make the trek to the stadium and took the court to announce the bad news to the crowd, and emcee Andrew Krazny helped the Frenchman through what was a difficult moment, prompting him with a few questions as the crowd offered scattered applause.
Monfils was in excellent form here in the California desert and he was fresh off a trouncing of Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday, but apparently the injury, to his left achilles, has been hampering him for a few days.
“It's been a couple days I felt my left Achilles a little bit,” Monfils said. “Day after day I was treating with my team. And last night was, after the match, was actually not so good. So this morning when we do another treatment, it was worse. I tried a little jog this morning, and I couldn't really actually push on it. Then we tape it. Then I hit a little bit tonight, and I felt that I cannot be 100%. Like, I have this pain, and it wasn't the right choice to play.”
After Monfils left the court, Thiem soon emerged to hold a practice session for the fans who were still hungry for more tennis. The Austrian was reportedly in a car on his way off the grounds when he made the decision to come back and have a hit.
“I was really surprised, because I was there at the golf cart waiting for 10, 15 minutes,” Thiem said of hearing about Monfils’ withdrawal. “And of course obviously then after 10, 15 minutes, I was suspecting something, because it's not normal.”
Monfils talked to media soon after to give more details on his injury and express his disappointment with his latest physical difficulty.
“I just made some ultrasound with the doc here, and we could see, like, a big inflammation,” Monfils said. “So actually said I was pretty accurate. That he could see that definitely it was the best choice I made tonight.”
Thiem advances to face Milos Raonic in the semis. The World No.8 is bidding to reach his first career final at a hardcourt Masters 1000 event.
On Friday at Indian Wells Roger Federer and Hubert Hurkacz will meet for a semi-final spot, with Rafael Nadal and Karen Khachanov following them. If Federer and Nadal each advance they would meet for the 39th time, with Nadal owning the 23-15 lifetime edge. The pair have met three times at Indian Wells with Federer owning the 2-1 edge.