French Davis Cup Captain Forget under pressure over Llodra decision
Davis Cup team captain, Frenchman Guy Forget has been feeling the heat over his player choices in the final ties. The French Press in particular has been very critical of the captain, blaming him for giving away the identity of
the players who would compete in the last match for the Davis Cup against Serbia.
Last weekend, the Serbian Davis Cup team overcame their French opponents to take away the Davis Cup trophy for the first time. Viktor Troicki, World Number 39, defeated French player Michael Llodra in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, 6-3
in the second reverse singles, and won the Serbian team their maiden title at the premier event. The matches had to be pushed into a deciding round after World Number 3 Novak ‘Nole’ Djokovic bailed his country out of trouble to level the score at 2 all by
defeating Gael Monfils in consecutive sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Before this, Monfils had scored an easy victory over Oakley-wearing World No. 49, Janko Tipsarevic.
The reason Forget has been facing so much criticism from his country’s press is because they feel he gave the opposing team an unintended advantage during the Novak Djokovic vs. Gael Monfils match. The two players met each other
on the court early on Sunday, with the last match of the event scheduled some hours after the first one.
The French newspaper, L’Equipe reported that the Serbian players and spectators both noticed when Guy Forget sent Michael Llodra off the court half way through the match between Gael Monfils and Novak Djokovic, while Gilles Simon
was left to stay and finish watching. This made it quite obvious that the French opponent for the last rubber would be Llodra. Consequently, the team captain Bogan Obradovic made the decision to send Viktor Troicki out on the court against Michael Llodra,
instead of Janko Tipsarevic.
This was a very good move made by Obradovic, and a careless mistake on Forget’s part. Troicki shattered his opponent in straight sets and won the last match of the Davis Cup Final 3-2. Had Gilles Simon been playing, it is possible
that he could have beaten Viktor Troicki. If Obradovic had been unaware that Llodra was playing in the last match, Troicki might not have been told to play at all, Simon has four wins and no losses against the Serbian player, therefore making Troicki a bad
choice as a challenger with such high stakes.
However, this discussion may go both ways – Janko Tipsarevic had suffered a miserable defeat against Gael Monfils in the first round, and it was unlikely that he would be given the chance to play again. Regardless of this, websites
and forums in France have begun petitioning to remove Forget from the position of Davis Cup team captain. Their primary reason, besides this incident, is that eleven years as a Davis team captain is a long enough tenure, especially when almost ten years have
passed since the last victory.
However, Guy Forget has chosen to strongly defend his choice. He mentioned that Mongils was the less talented person, and Llodra had recently had success in the doubles match and was therefore the logical choice. Forget told reporters,
“Gilles has played three [Davis Cup] matches and he has experienced three losses. I knew that Michael had been extremely successful in singles and doubles in Davis Cup. With his doubles victory, in my mind he was the right option. Given the play of each other,
the liabilities of each, I still think that Michael had everything to succeed.”
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