2023-08-14 23:01:42
Arthur Fils was called up for the French team on Monday for the first time and will play alongside Adrian Mannarino, Ugo Humbert, Édouard Roger-Vasselin and Nicolas Mahut in the group stage of the Davis Cup in September.
France must face Australia, Great Britain and Switzerland, from September 12 to 17 in Manchester and try to win one of the two qualifying places in this group B for the final phase, in Malaga at the end of November.
At 19, Arthur Fils has had several good performances in recent weeks, including a title in Lyon and a semi-final at the ATP 500 tournament in Hamburg. He reached No. 46 in the world, his highest ATP ranking. Adrian Mannarino (35, 32nd), recently titled in Newport, and Ugo Humbert (25, 33rd) are also selected.
The experienced Nicolas Mahut (41 years old, 10th in doubles) and Édouard Roger-Vasselin (39 years old, 39th in doubles), who will celebrate his first selection, will compose the French pair in doubles.
Grosjean, the captain, no longer chooses the players
“This French Davis Cup team can nurture great ambitions in the competition thanks to its captain, his state of mind and the energy that emanates from this group”, declared Gilles Moretton, president of the French Federation of tennis (FTF). For the first time, the list of players was announced by the president of the FFT himself, after a proposal from the national technical director Nicolas Escudé and the high level director of the FFT Paul-Henri Mathieu.
In July, the presidency of the FFT, requested by its ethics committee, had withdrawn the choice of players selected for the France team from the captain of the Blues Sébastien Grosjean to avoid possible conflicts of interest. Apart from his captaincy, the latter is also a tournament director, television consultant, co-founder and shareholder of a tournament organizing agency and player representative.
The Blues will cross paths with a certain Andy Murray, the former world No. 1 Andy Murray (36), who is returning to the British selection unveiled on Monday. The former Wimbledon winner, now the 36th player in the world, did not participate in the last victory against Colombia (3-1), during the play-off disputed on clay in February.
Murray is called up alongside Cameron Norrie (15th in the world), Dan Evans (28th) and Neal Skupski (world No. 1 in doubles). A three-time Grand Slam winner, he participated in the Davis Cup coronation in 2015, allowing Great Britain to end a 79-year drought in the competition.
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