Tsonga & Monfils Pull Out of Davis Cup Semi-Final Against Croatia
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
The Croatian Davis Cup tennis team will face a under-strength France in their semi-final clash which gets underway in Zadar on Friday on Croatia’s Dalmatian coast…
France will be without two of their top players for the clash after world number 8 Gael Monfils and world number 11 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both have pulled out through injury.
According to a statement from the French Tennis Federation, Monfils has pulled out of the semi-final due to a knee injury and will be replaced by Lucas Pouille, who has only one Davis Cup appearance under his belt.
Meanwhile Richard Gasquet has replaced Tsonga. Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert will be the likely doubles combination for the French.
Croatia will be at full strength for the tie with Borna Ćorić getting through training without any issues after he pulled out of his US Open match with a knee strain. Croatia’s number one player Marin Čilić, Ivan Dodig and Marin Draganja make up the rest of Croatia’s team.
“It is going to be tough, we have a hard opponent. They have the best ranked doubles pairing currently. We hope the home advantage will help us”, Croatian coach Željko Krajan said.
The first day of the match has been sold out. The other semi-final will be played between Great Britain and Argentina.
