Gael Monfils has pulled out of San Jose and Memphis with a right knee injury. The 13th-ranked Frenchman began to feel serious pain in his knee the week before last during the tournament in Montpellier, where he reached the final. He then skipped his first match in Davis Cup against Canada last Friday, but he did manage to play the dead rubber on Sunday, which he called more like a practice session.
Monfils did play an exhibition Monday night in San Jose and then doubles on Tuesday, but said that the pain began to return, and a doctor told him that he had to stop taking pain killers because he had been on them too long. On Wednesday, the pain returned in full force.
Monfils will return to France to get another MRI on his knee. The last one he underwent revealed swelling in his patellar tendon. He wants play the upcoming Masters Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, but said that the Davis Cup tie against the United States in France in early April is more important to him. "The big question is whether to stop and have a long rehabilitation period," he said.—Matt Cronin