Novak Djokovic reached the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters on Thursday without playing a point due to injury to Gael Monfils.
Monfils, who is 0-17 against top-ranked Djokovic, said he had an adductor injury.
“Following my team’s medical opinion, we did an ultrasound a few hours ago and we identified a muscle lesion,” French said. “After that, we decided to withdraw with the medical team and my tennis team.”
Monfils expressed grief over not being able to play in front of his parents, who had come from the Caribbean to see him.
“Well, terrible disappointment, because my whole family, my relatives are here, my mom came from Martinique and my dad came from Guadeloupe,” Monfils said. “We waited until the last minute, and yesterday the ultrasound wasn’t great. This morning we did another ultrasound, that wasn’t great either.”
Five-time champion Djokovic will next face Taylor Fritz at the Paris Masters. The unseeded American defeated 10th seed Cameron Norie 6-3, 7-6(3) to sabotage the British player’s chances of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals.
Fritz saved two set points in the 10th game of the second set, trailing 40-15. He later served to force a tiebreaker and scored four match points at 6–2. Norrie saved a match point on his serve, but Fritz made a strong first serve with a forehand winner on the next point to advance.
Fritz has lost all four of his career matches against Djokovic, including at this year’s Australian Open and Rome Masters.
Seventh-seeded Hubert Herkaz defeated lucky loser Dominic Koefer 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to cement his chances of a place in the ATP Finals, which begins on 14 November.
Harkaz will next face unseeded Australian James Duckworth, who reached his first Masters quarterfinal with a 7-6(6), 6-4 win over Alexei Popyrin.
Later on Thursday, defending champion Daniil Medvedev was to face Sebastian Korda in his first career meeting and fourth seed Alexander Zverev was to play No. 16 Grigor Dimitrov.
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