Mathieu Montcourt - death of a tennisman

His name probably isn't one that is on the lips of many a sports fans, but on Tuesday, French tennis player Mathieu Montcourt made the headlines for the saddest of reasons.

The body of the 24-year-old was found in front of his apartment in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt in the early hours of the morning, and police are investigating the circumstances of his death.

Initial reports suggest that Montcourt died of a pulmonary embolism.

According to police the body of the 24-year-old was found in the early hours of Tuesday morning by his girlfriend on the staircase of the apartment block in which he lived.

An autopsy is due to be held on Wednesday to discover the exact causes of the player's early death.

Montcourt turned professional in 2002 and although his wasn't a glittering career on a par with his better-known French contemporaries such as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils or Gilles Simon for example, Montcourt was placed 119th in the world in the latest rankings released on Monday.

More regularly seen on the Challenge tour in Europe, his most recent appearance in a Grand Slam tournament was in the French Open at Roland Garros in June, where he made it through to the second round.

Perhaps part of the explanation for Montcourt's failure to progress more quickly in the rankings was that a cloud had been hanging over his career for several months.

In August last year he was fined and suspended for eight weeks by the ATP for betting on tennis matches back in 2005.

He took the case to appeal and in May this year the Lausanne-based Court of arbitration for sport reduced the suspension to six weeks.

Interviewed on national radio, Michael Llodra, fellow French tennis professional and a close friend of Montcourt on the professional circuit, expressed his shock.

'It's horrible, tragic," he said.

"I've been upset ever since I heard the news. To go like that at 24 years of age is terrible."