French no.1 Alize Cornet was seen wearing a patch with Mathieu Montcourt's name on it yesterday.
Obviously Cornet is still mourning the loss of her friend and fellow compatriot.
A defending champion last year, Cornet gave in to Shahar Peer losing 2-6, 0-6 in the second round of the Budapest Grand Prix.
Updates: Here's a message (in French) from Cornet on her website:
"Je suis extrêmement choquée et émue par la disparition de Mathieu. A vrai dire, je n’arrive toujours pas à réaliser qu’il n’est plus parmi nous, que je ne croiserai plus ce garçon si gentil que j’avais l’habitude de côtoyer sur certains tournois.
Je voudrais témoigner tout mon soutien pour cette terrible épreuve a sa famille et ses proches. J’essayerai de lui rendre hommage tout a l’heure sur le terrain en portant un badge à son nom, pour que personne n’oublie a quel point son décès est déchirant pour moi et pour le monde du tennis en général, que l’on ait connu Mathieu de prés ou de loin.Repose en paix cher Mathieu, et courage a ceux qui restent."
Rafael Nadal released a statement on his website after he got to know about Mathieu Montcourt's untimely passing.
Manacor, Spain - July 7th 2009
This morning I woke up with one of the worst news anyone can receive. I heard about the death of our friend Mathieu Montcourt. I am still under shock for this. I can't believe it.
I knew Mathieu since we were kids. We competed together at all the events at an international level there is since you are a kid: Les Petit As, Copa Borotta, etc. and of course afterwards once becoming professionals,.
When someone like this disappears, when something like this happens, you really know where we are and the relativeness of winning or losing a tennis match, of not competing at an event or anything else. This is the loss of a guy who was only 24 and that was sports person. He won't be playing with us again.
I would like to send my most deep and sincere condolences to his family, to his friends and to the French fans.
French media are reporting that Mathieu Montcourt had died at the age of 24.
The cause of death was said to be "pulmonary embolism".
Montcourt, ranked no.119 in the world was reported found dead by his girlfriend in front of the door to his ground floor apartment in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt on Monday night.
"The French Tennis Federation (FFT) is literally in shock on learning of the death of Mathieu Montcourt," a Federation statement said.
"His sudden loss plunges the whole tennis family into immense sadness," the statement added.
FFT technical director Patrice Dominguez said: "Mathieu was a young and promising talent who was really on the way up. "He was a hard-working, serious and clean-living lad. We are devastated and our first thoughts are with his family."
Montcourt's last tournament was in the Croatian town of Rijeka late June where he reached the semi-final of a Challenger Tour event.
His career was badly hit in August last year when he was banned for eight weeks and fined 12,000 dollars for betting on the Internet on the outcome of tennis matches. Updates: Initial autopsy results indicate Montcourt died of cardiac arrest, according to French police.
"Based on preliminary findings, we conclude the death was from natural causes. We are awaiting the toxicology results, which should be available next week, to be completely certain," a police source told AFP.
Thanks Esther for this press release from the media team at Tashkent Challenger. Top seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei stopped the winning run of Frenchman Mathieu Montcourt to lift the singles title at the $125,000 Tashkent Challenger, an ATP Challenger series event which concluded at the Olympic Tennis School here. In a one sided final top seed Rendy outplayed Montcourt 6-3, 6-2 in a 1 hour 24 minutes final to take his first title in 3 months.
Rendy won $18000 and 90 ATP points for his win, while Montcourt had to be content with $10,600 and 63 ATP points.
The finalist were also presented with the national dress of Uzbekistan. The finals played in a full capacity stadium was expected to be a close encounter with both players in good form, but turned out to be damp squib with Rendy taking charge from the very beginning of the match.
“I twisted my ankle four days before coming here and I thought would not be able to play in the event, but my trainer has done a fantastic job and I ended up winning the event,” said an elated Rendy.
"I had a plan for him, I decided to cut the speed and not give my opponent any rhythm, this ploy worked for me," he added.
"My win here is not luck, I beat many good players, I played the best tennis of my career, after my win here I’m confident that I’ll be able to play good tennis and beat many good players in the future."
A dejected Montcourt said all credit to Rendy,
"He did not give me chance at all, basically I’m a patient player wait for my chances, but today I had no chance."
"I was hitting the ball very well, but my legs just did not support me, I was tired after the four good matches I played this week," he added.
Speaking at the prize distribution ceremony the Tournament Director Mr. S. Uthrapathy said that he was hopeful that the Tashkent Challenger would become an annual feature on the ATP calendar.
He added that there will be many more exiting professional tennis events in Uzbekistan next year.
The Mayor of Tashkent Abdukhahhor Tukhtaev, the Deputy Minister of Sports and Culture Erkin Kutibaev, Tournament director S. Uthrapathy and ATP Supervisor Carl Baldwin presented the awards.
In the doubles final on Saturday, Flavio Cipolla and Pavel Snobel won the doubles event after defeated 4th seeded Russian pair of Michail Elgin and Alexandre Kudryatsev 6-3, 6-4 in a one sided encounter.
The winning pair received a purse of $7,750 and 90 points, while runners-up had to be content with $4,500 and 63 points.
“We’re both good friends and have played for the first time and won, may be we will play more events in the future,” said Cipolla.
The Deputy Minister of Sports and Culture Erkin Kutibaev, Tournament director S. Uthrapathy and ATP Supervisor Carl Baldwin presented the awards.
Giant killer Mathieu Montcourt of France has had a wonderful week so far at Tashkent Challenger recording two upsets in a row against 8th seed Go Soeda of Japan and against 2nd seed and 70th ranked Dudi Sela of Isreal.
Here's a piece of the interview with Montcourt after his win against Sela.
Q: How do you feel after today’s win?
Montcourt: I’m very proud of the way I played today, I played very well. It’s a good win for me. I told myself I had to fight hard and win today and I did it. I’m playing very well and feel nice. Also I’m liking the courts.
Q: Are you surprised with your performance?
Montcourt: Yes, I’m truly surprised, I was not expecting this results. I cam e here with a view to win a few matches. I had lost couple of matches in the last few weeks and feeling low on confidence.
Q: But you are playing relatively well this week?
Montcourt: Like I said, I have nothing to loose, I’m just trying to play fee as I can without expecting too much, that is why I’m probably playing better
Q: It’s believed that the French are essentially clay court players, but your game is much suited for the hard courts?
Montcourt: Very true, I practice at the Rolland Garros which has clay courts, so all of us practice on the clay courts, but if you see today many of the results of French players are coming on hard courts look at Tsonga, Gasquet they are winning on hard courts. Nowadays it doesn’t matter on which surface you practice, one has to learn to win on other surfaces like hard courts and grass too.
Q: How do you look at the future?
Montcourt: I have 2 more events still to go , I’m playing in Korea, I haven’t set any goals , this is the end of the season I want to end it with a high and make lot of points. I want to play well without putting pressure on myself. This way I’m preparing to play better tennis next year.
Q: Your views on the Tashkent Challenger?
Montcourt: It’s my first time in Uzbekistan, and I’m impressed with the organization of the event. I did not expect anything here, but I’m surprised at the way they are doing the event. The people are friendly and the hotel is good, so are the courts and playing conditions. I think it’s a very high and well organized event. (Via Sunder Iyer on behalf of the media team at Tashkent Challenger)
The late Mathieu Montcourt was laid to rest at Mount Valérien Nanterre last Friday and followed by a memorial service at Roland Garros.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils made an appearance at the memorial service and gave a moving tribute to Montcourt.
French no.1 Alize Cornet was seen wearing a patch with Mathieu Montcourt's name on it yesterday.
Rafael Nadal released a statement on his website after he got to know about Mathieu Montcourt's untimely passing.
French media are reporting that Mathieu Montcourt had died at the age of 24.
Thanks Esther for this press release from the media team at Tashkent Challenger.
The finals played in a full capacity stadium was expected to be a close encounter with both players in good form, but turned out to be damp squib with Rendy taking charge from the very beginning of the match. 
In the doubles final on Saturday, Flavio Cipolla and Pavel Snobel won the doubles event after defeated 4th seeded Russian pair of Michail Elgin and Alexandre Kudryatsev 6-3, 6-4 in a one sided encounter. 
The Deputy Minister of Sports and Culture Erkin Kutibaev, Tournament director S. Uthrapathy and ATP Supervisor Carl Baldwin presented the awards.
Giant killer Mathieu Montcourt of France has had a wonderful week so far at Tashkent Challenger recording two upsets in a row against 8th seed Go Soeda of Japan and against 2nd seed and 70th ranked Dudi Sela of Isreal.
Q: How do you feel after today’s win?
