TENNIS The protected ranking allows a player who has been absent from the circuit for six months in a row to register for certain tournaments despite a fall in the world ranking
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Gael Monfils, at the Madrid Open on May 3, 2022. — Ella Ling/Shutterstock/SIPA
Gaël Monfils will start the year 2023 by a tactical choice. The tennis player announced; Saturday in an interview granted; to Canal Plus its package for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam lifter of the year, from January 16 to 29.
This is a thoughtful choice on the part of the current French N.4 (and 52nd in the world) who wishes to skip the Melbourne tournament in order to benefit from “a “protected filing” next season.
Absent since the Montreal Masters 1000
“There’s this protected ranking, when you haven’t played for a certain number of months,” to Canal Plus. “I know that if I take it, I will have to. to miss the Australian Open in order to complete my six months. Çit will be my decision”.
The 36-year-old Parisian has been absent from the ATP circuit since the Masters 1000 in Montreal and his retirement in the third round against Briton Jack Draper. The protected classification allows a player absent from the circuit for six months in a row to line up for tournaments when his real ranking should not allow him to do so.