Quentin Halys and Luca Van Assche have been called up to the French Davis Cup team to replace Arthur Fils and Ugo Umbert by Blues captain Paul-Henri Mathieu, in anticipation of the qualifying round which will pit Taiwan against France this weekend , according to a press release from the FFT.
Present at the Australian Open to observe the French players, “PHM” finally decided to do without Arthur Fils on sporting grounds.
The captain of the French Davis Cup team, Paul-Henri Mathieu, has made two changes in the group which will face Chinese Taipei:
Quentin Halys and Luca Van Assche replace Arthur Fils and Ugo Humbert 🇫🇷
📍Taipei City, 3 -February 4 |
#DavisCup pic.twitter.com/Oj2dTq0I3b
— FFT (@FFTennis) January 29, 2024
“There are many parameters to take into account, notably the state of freshness of each person.
I decided to replace Arthur Fils with Quentin Halys.
He is very versatile, he can play singles and doubles.
He also likes fast surfaces.
It’s really a personal choice,” explains the new captain of the France team in the press release.
“It’s time” to launch Van Assche
As for Ugo Humbert, withdrawn for personal reasons, it gives Luca Van Assche the opportunity to be selected: "It's time to launch him" specifies the captain, after the good performance of the Lorraine in Melbourne, where he won two Grand Slam matches in a row for the first time, beating the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (26th in the world) in the process.
Halys, 27 years old, 100th in the world in the ATP rankings and Van Assche (19 years old, 68th in the world) are called up for the first time in their careers for the French team.
They thus join Adrian Mannarino (now 17th in the world and the highest ranked tricolor in the ATP), but also Nicolas Mahut and Edouard-Roger Vasselin.
The meetings will take place on February 3 and 4 on the island of Taiwan.