Popyrin replaces injured Rune at Bastide Medical UTS Nimes

Alexei “The Sniper” Popyrin will take part in the Bastide Médical UTS Nîmes. The Australian replaces Holger “The Viking” Rune, injured due to a knee inflammation.

“At practice today, I felt a pain in my knee which I already had at a previous injury. After consulting with my medical team, I cannot take any risk for this start of the clay season and need to be at 10O% before I play matches, especially in the fast-paced UTS format,” Rune said in a statement released.

“I will therefore have to use the next days to recover and have to withdraw from Bastide Médical UTS Nîmes. I am sorry for the French fans, I was so much looking forward to play in the Arènes. I’ll be back on UTS Tour very soon!”

Poyrin will be playing his first UTS event since 2020, the first year of the UTS series, when it was played during Covid-19 at the Mouratoglou Academy

The event will be held on April 4-5 and will be played at the historic amphitheatre Les Arènes de Nîmes. Others in the field include Andrey Rublev, Alex de Minaur, Casper Ruud, Tomas Machac, Ben Shelton, Ugo Humbert and Gael Monfils.