Arthur Fils, 46th player in the world, was called up to the France team for the first time on Monday and will compete alongside Adrian Mannarino (32nd), Ugo Humbert (33rd), Edouard Roger-Vasselin (10th in doubles) and Nicolas Mahut ( 39th in doubles) the group stage of the Davis Cup in September.
France must face Australia, Great Britain and Switzerland, from September 12 to 17 in Manchester and try to win one of the two qualifying places in this group B for the final phase, in Malaga at the end of November.
Arthur Fils, 19, is called up for the first time after having chained several good performances in recent weeks, including a title in Lyon and a semi-final at the ATP 500 tournament in Hamburg. He reached No. 46 in the world, his highest ATP ranking.
Adrian Mannarino (35, 32nd), recently titled in Newport, and Ugo Humbert (25, 33rd) are also selected.
The experienced Nicolas Mahut (41) and Édouard Roger-Vasselin (39), who will celebrate his first selection, will compose the French pair in doubles.
“This French Davis Cup team can have great ambitions in the competition thanks to its captain, his state of mind and the energy that emanates from this group”, declared Gilles Moretton, president of the French Federation of tennis (FTF).
For the first time, the list of players was announced by the president of the FFT himself, after a proposal from the national technical director Nicolas Escudé and the high level director of the FFT Paul-Henri Mathieu.
In July, the presidency of the FFT, requested by its ethics committee, had withdrawn the choice of players selected for the France team from the captain of the Blues Sébastien Grosjean to avoid possible conflicts of interest. Apart from his captaincy, he is also a tournament director, television consultant, co-founder and shareholder of a tournament organizing agency and player representative.
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