CAPTAIN NOAH WILLING TO RISK FRENCH FURY
YANNICK NOAH, the homegrown French Open champion and pop star, is regularly voted as his country’s most popular personality. At Wednesday night’s official dinner ahead of Britain’s Davis Cup quarter-final, he had the room full of people engaged in a singalong, which GB captain Leon Smith described as ‘off the charts’ for entertainment value. However, the charismatic Frenchman could find his popularity dipping if France manage to lose to their old enemy in the match that starts today. Noah, back as captain, confirmed he was taking a gamble picking world No 68 Jeremy Chardy as his second singles player ahead of Gilles Simon. The French take the Davis Cup very seriously, and if the move backfires his compatriots are unlikely to be amused. Noah said that he was going on the evidence of what he’d seen in training. ‘Gilles has been playing Davis Cup for a long time, sometimes successfully and sometimes it was more painful,’ he explained. ‘Jeremy is new but he has responded well.’ Such is the depth France have that they can call on world No 23 Lucas Pouille, even in the absence of the injured Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who is taking a break having just become a father. GB have no such selection issues with Andy Murray not being ready to play. They must hope that Kyle Edmund can repeat his performance of last year’s quarter-final in Serbia and win both singles matches. Or that Dan Evans performs beyond expectations on his clay return after missing it for the last two years. Both had to bolt from yesterday’s draw ceremony to make their allotted practice times, because it started late and there were too many speeches. It was typical of the way the Davis Cup organisers do not incentivise players to turn up, although the line-ups for the quarterfinals are strong, with most absences due to injury. ‘They could just make it easier for the players to come and they should do, because they are the ones that make the event,’ reflected Jamie Murray. Order of play; Today (1pm, LIVE on BBC2): Pouille v Edmund, Chardy v Evans.
Tomorrow: Mahut/Benneteau v J Murray/Inglot. Sunday: Pouille v Evans, Chardy v Edmund.