By Tennis Now | Thursday, November 22, 2018
Jeremy Chardy opens France's Davis Cup title defense against Croatia's Borna Coric tomorrow.
Photo credit: Corinne Dubreuil/Davis Cup Facebook
As a player and captain, Yannick Noah has shown a flair for big-match theatrics.
The French captain defied convention with his line-up choices setting the stage for a dramatic Davis Cup defense in Lille.
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Noah selected 40th-ranked Jeremy Chardy and veteran Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as singles starters for tomorrow's opening-round singles against Croatian stalwarts Borna Coric and Marin Cilic in the Davis Cup final on the red clay of the Stade Pierre Mauroy.
In his farewell final as French captain, Noah opted to sit Davis Cup hero Lucas Pouille, who demolished Steve Darcis sealing France's victory over Belgium in the 2017 final in Lille. Noah said his decision was months in the making.
"For the last two months I was looking at so many ways, so many options, so many players," Noah told DavisCup.com. "I had to decide whether I was putting first their spirit, their involvement with the team, their recent results, their health, so there were a lot of things coming into play.
"After looking every day at what was happening—their reactions, the sets we played—I thought that the best thing for the team was to start on Friday with these two players."
The 40th-ranked Chardy launches France's quest for an 11th Davis Cup championship against world No. 12 Borna Coric, who clinched Croatia's 3-2 semifinal conquest of the United States with a gritty five-set triumph over Frances Tiafoe in September.
Chardy has won two of three meetings with the 22-year-old Croatian, including a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3, triumph in their most recent meeting on the red clay of Monte-Carlo last year. Chardy posted a 4-4 clay-court record this season and has been slumping recently.
Since reaching the Queen's Club semifinals in June, Chardy posted a 5-10 record. He is 1-5 vs. Top 10 opponents this season.
The seventh-ranked Cilic takes on Tsonga in tomorrow's second singles. Cilic is 5-2 lifetime vs. Tsonga.
Injury-induced inactivity has seen the 33-year-old Frenchman's ranking drop to No. 259. Tsonga underwent left knee surgery on April 3rd and missed more than seven months of the season before returning in Metz in September.
The former Australian Open finalist finished 5-6 on the season, including a 1-4 mark in his last five matches. Tsonga has played inspired tennis in Davis Cup competition, posting a 27-9 record, including a superb 17-3 mark on clay.
Queen's Club champion Cilic has won three of five meetings vs. Chardy with the pair splitting their two previous clay-court encounters. They are scheduled to square off in Sunday's opening reverse singles though captain Noah could substitute Pouille as a singles starter.
Coric, who called his comeback victory over Tiafoe the greatest moment of his life, is scheduled to play Tsonga in Sunday's final reverse singles. Coric has won four of his five Davis Cup singles matches this season and is 9-7 overall in Davis Cup singles.
Defending Davis Cup champion France powered past Spain to its seventh straight victory in September's semifinals becoming the first nation since the Czech Republic in 2013 to advance to back-to-back finals.
Noah pressed all the right buttons in the semifinals starting Davis Cup debutant Benoit Paire, who steamrolled a gimpy Pablo Carreno Busta in the opener. Davis Cup hero Pouille edged Roberto Bautista Agut in a three-hour, 41 minute battle to put France up 2-0 after day one.