Montreal tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime pulls out of Ultimate Tennis Showdown with ankle injury

FILE PHOTO: Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime plays a shot against Russia's Andrey Rublev during their Adelaide International tennis match in Adelaide, Friday, Jan. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/James Elsby

Montreal tennis star Felix Auger-Aliassime has pulled out of the upcoming Ultimate Tennis Showdown after twisting an ankle during training on Tuesday.

The UTS announced Auger-Aliassime's withdrawal Wednesday on its Twitter feed.

"It's nothing major to be honest. Bad luck that it happened yesterday during training," Bernard Duchesneau, Auger-Aliassime's agent, said.

"It's nothing serious at all. It's just too close from the beginning of the competition to take any risk."

Duchesneau is hopeful Auger-Aliassime can resume training in a couple of weeks.

Auger-Aliassime will be replaced by Spain's Feliciano Lopez at the event.

The UTS is set to start Saturday in Nice, France, at the tennis academy of Patrick Mouratoglou, the coach of Serena Williams.

Auger-Aliassime was scheduled to open against 20-year-old Australian Alexei Popyrin.

The independent UTS is being pitched as a return to competitive tennis after the ATP and WTA professional tours were suspended in March because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Auger-Aliassime was ranked 20th on the ATP Tour when competition was halted.

The next ATP Tour event still on the schedule is the Citi Open in Washington, starting Aug. 2.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2020.