Gael Monfils loses on injury return after racket breakage
MUNICH: Frenchman Gael Monfils slumped to a surprise first-round defeat by Mirza Basic in Munich as he made his return from injury on Tuesday, after seeing his rackets broken in transit.
The former world number six, now ranked 40, was playing for the first time since retiring from his third-round match in Indian Wells seven weeks ago with a back problem.
The 31-year-old wrote on Twitter that all his rackets had been damaged during his flight from Geneva to Munich on Sunday and that he had to play with someone else's.
Monfils recovered from a poor first set against Bosnian Basic to force a decider, but eventually slipped to a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 loss to the world number 90.
He is trying to regain form and fitness on the Munich clay ahead of the French Open, where he reached the semi-finals in 2008.
World number three Alexander Zverev is the top seed in Bavaria and begins his campaign against fellow German Yannick Hanfmann on Wednesday.