The return of Monfils to the France team
I have seen all the matches of the French players in Melbourne.
Gaël showed himself to be in very good shape, making a magnificent run to reach the quarter-finals.
He is very motivated to play in the Davis Cup.
It is a logical selection.
Even if he had not been present in Innsbruck (
note: France had been eliminated in the group stage
), we had exchanged a lot beforehand. He wanted to play and he is motivated and ready. And his form is a good thing for the France team. Regarding his defeat in Montpellier (he was swept away Thursday evening in the first round), it was mainly due to great physical and mental fatigue. I am not at all worried for Gaël and for his participation in this meeting. He will blow and recover. He will not normally play in Rotterdam and will resume in Doha.
Mannarino's pick
Adrian Mannarino was with us at the 2021 finals in Austria.
He integrated very well into the team and showed a very interesting level.
He confirmed this at the start of the year by reaching the round of 16 in Melbourne, with victories over Hubert Hurkacz and Aslan Karatsev, and by performing a good match against Rafael Nadal.
His level of play and his confidence are there and, physically, he did a lot of work in December.
Now I have the option of bringing in a fifth player.
We are now entering the indoor season in conditions similar to what we will have in Pau (note: the match will be played at the Palais des Sports).
We will follow the results and the physical form of the players.
The absence of the younger generation
The youngsters played well in Adelaide (
Corentin Moutet was in the semi-finals
).
Arthur Rinderknech was also in good shape (
final
) and unfortunately he hurt his wrist at the Australian Open.
I hope things will get better over the next few weeks.
As for Ugo Humbert, he has been experiencing difficulties since the Tokyo Olympics.
Like the new generation, he needs to gain consistency.
I am confident, as for Ugo Gaston who brought a lot of freshness to Innsbruck during the last final phase.
It is especially necessary to encourage and help these players so that they progress in the classification and in constancy.
The opponent
I don't expect a walk in the park.
Never underestimate an opponent.
Ecuador will land without pressure.
We will obviously be favorites but we have to respect our opponents and play our best tennis to qualify.
I saw Emilio Gomez (142nd in the world) play in Australia.
They have a good doubles player.
Quiroz is a solid player as well.
You will have to be serious.
The return of the home match
All the players are happy to be able to play a Davis Cup match at home with the public. In Pau, there have been good and bad memories, but the atmosphere has always been there in this room (
note: usually intended for the Elan Béarnais basketball club and which can accommodate nearly 7,500 spectators per day
). We can't wait to share emotions with the public and to find what made the flavor of this event until 2019 in a format (two singles, on Friday, a double and two singles on Saturday) which is very similar to the old formula.
The formula which evolves (again)
We recently learned that there would be a date in September for the preliminary match, before the final played in December.
There would be 16 teams qualified with four pools of four the week after the US Open.
We will know a little more at the beginning of March about the four cities that will host the four hens.
I don't know if France will be a candidate.
We are already going to do our best to qualify so that we can then hope to evolve in front of the French public.
