Nice (AFP)
French N.1 Kristina Mladenovic (42nd in the world) was beaten for her return to competition on Monday in Nice during the first stage of the Elite FFT Challenge, set up by the Federation as part of its tennis support plan tricolor in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mladenovic was defeated by young Clara Burel (506) 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) and declined to comment after the match.
In the women's table (12 players), Mladenovic is notably accompanied by her teammates on the French team who won the last Fed Cup: Fiona Ferro (53rd), Alizé Cornet (59th) and Pauline Parmentier (154th).
Mladenovic has given up participating in the exhibition exhibition Eastern European Championship which is currently being played in Belgrade and where she had to return to competition, due to the cases of Covid-19 (Novak Djokovic and three other players) which were declared during the recent Adria Tour in the Balkans.
In the men's table (24 players), the highest ranked is Gilles Simon (54th) who will be notably accompanied by Pierre-Hugues Herbert (71st) and Nicolas Mahut (213th).
The competition takes place in the form of a championship (Monday to Wednesday) before a knockout table (quarters Thursday, half Friday and final Saturday). The half and the finals will be broadcast on the FFT web channel (https://tv.fft.fr).
This mini-circuit in the Alpes-Maritimes is part of the recovery plan put in place by the FFT to help players who are unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic. After Nice, he will move to Cannes (July 13-18) and then to Villeneuve-Loubet (July 20-25).
The tournament series, endowed with a total of 282,000 euros, will be played on hard to prepare for the American tour planned for August with the highlight of the US Open.
Can participate 24 players and 12 players eligible for Qualifications and grand tables of Grand Slam tournaments (with 4 wild-cards for men and 2 for women).
© 2020 AFP