Yannick Noah surprised with a personal touch in the draw for the Davis Cup final on Friday (live at DAZN) in Lille against Croatia. France’s captain, alongside Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, nominated veteran Jeremy Chardy – and initially left Lucas Pouille out.
Yannick Noah was always good for surprises. Earlier – as a player. The French Open winner of 1983 had a considerable repertoire of art strokes at his disposal. Sometimes the inclination to the show stood in his way.
On Thursday, the 58-year-old conjured Jeremy Chardy out of his hat in the draw. The world ranking-40th unexpectedly got the advantage over Lucas Pouille (ATP-No. 32), who seemed to be France’s number one after the cancellations of Richard Gasquet (ATP-No. 26), Gael Monfils (ATP-No. 29) and Gilles Simon (ATP-No. 30).
31-year-old Chardy opens the 106th Davis Cup Final on Friday at 14:00 CET in the 26,429-seat Stade Pierre Mauroy against Croatia’s number two Borna Coric (ATP No. 12). For the second singles Noah nominated at his farewell performance as team boss Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who challenges the former US Open winner Marin Cilic on the first day. The number seven in the world said, “There’s no favourite in this duel.”
For the time being, Pouille is not on the side of the hosts. Chardy’s point is that he won five of his six singles in the Equipe Tricolore – all on sand. In the final game, too, the players play on ashes, although the red surface in the hall is of course faster than in the open air.
“Now that I’ve watched every day what happened and how the boys played in the training games, I think it’s best to start with these two players,” Noah explained his vote for Chardy and Tsonga.
Tsonga (33) did not return to the Tour until mid-September in Metz after a seven-month break due to knee surgery and had back problems in the past few days. Croatia’s team boss Zeljko Krajan, however, was little surprised by Chardys’ nomination: “We know that Yannick sometimes pulls a joker out of his sleeve,” Krajan said.
France will start the race in Lille as defending champion and will grab his eleventh title in the last final of the traditional form. A breath of melancholy will certainly blow through the arena. The first two final tournaments of the radically changed Davis Cup will take place in 2019 and 2020 with 18 teams (!) in Madrid. The reform had been harshly criticized by many sides – including the German Tennis Federation (DTB).
In the direct duel between France and Croatia the score is 1:1. The hosts want to prepare a tailor-made farewell for their captain: After the final, Noah will be replaced by two-time Grand Slam winner Amelie Mauresmo.
Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut and Ivan Dodig/Mate Pavic will face each other in the doubles on Saturday (from 13.00). Last weekend Herbert and Mahut had lost the final of the ATP finals by 7:5, 1:6, 11:13 against the US-American combination Mike Bryan/Jack Sock.