French tennis player Gael Monfils almost turned an ordinary exhibition match into an MMA fight. The athlete literally pounced on … an ordinary spectator!

What pissed off the eminent tennis player so much?

On shields with fists

Monfils played at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in Los Angeles. His next opponent was the American Francis Tiafoe. The stands were rooting for their own and in every way interfered with the Frenchman.

At some point, the situation crossed the boundaries of reason. One of the spectators sitting in the front row made obscene jokes and mocking remarks about Monfils. At first, the tennis player did not pay attention to such behavior, but then his patience ran out.

Another remark infuriated Monfils. The Frenchman ran to the stands, jumped onto the billboards and loomed menacingly over the offender. It seemed that the tennis player was about to pounce on the fan with his fists. He was clearly not ready for such attention from the star and leaned back. A few seconds later, Gael jumped off the shields and returned to the court.

Gael Monfils / Photo: © Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The behavior of the tennis player surprised and frightened everyone present. Even TV commentators were shocked. At first they did not understand what was happening.

Similar to UFC

It became even more interesting when the match ended. Having beaten Tiafoe, Monfils again approached that very fan … and shook his hand! Moreover, Gael gave the viewer a small gift in the form of a wristband.

This picture stunned the already surprised audience. There were even more questions. But the main one remained unanswered: what was in Monfils’ head when he jumped onto the podium?

“A fight with the audience would have taken everything to a completely different level. It’s more like the UFC. Of course, a precedent has been set. Now I wonder how other players will react,” said one of the commentators on TV, quoted by the Daily Star.

DJ and unusual format

The Ultimate Tennis Showdown tournament, where Monfils scared the audience, has little to do with the usual tennis. In fact, this is a commercial format, the main goal of which is to earn money for players and organizers.

Fans at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in Los Angeles / Photo: © FS / AdMedia / Global Look Press

The main difference is the scoring system. There are no classic 15-30-40 here: winning the draw brings one point. The match consists of four periods, and when the score is 2:2, the “golden quarter” is assigned to two winning draws. The rules of the tournament are more like not tennis, but table tennis.

The atmosphere on the court also differs little from the usual. There is a DJ running next to the playground and the public is allowed to support their own. In addition, opponents can talk to each other during rallies.

The Ultimate Tennis Showdown format was invented by the famous coach Patrick Muratoglu – in different years he worked with Serena Williams, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and now he leads Simona Halep to victories. The next UTS tournament will be held in September in Frankfurt am Main, followed by the final, the date and place of which have not yet been determined.

Eliminated in the semi-finals

Eight famous tennis players played in Los Angeles. In addition to Gael Monfils and Francis Tiafoe, Alexander Bublik, Diego Schwartzman, Taylor Fritz, Wu Yibin, Ben Shelton and Benoit Paire entered the court. The champion was the Chinese Yibin, who defeated the American Fritz in the final.

Monfils, in turn, lost to Fritz in the semi-finals. But with his behavior, he clearly attracted attention to himself and the entire tournament.