France's new Davis Cup captain Yannick Noah has retained Gael Monfils in his team to play Canada in a World Group first round match next month despite the player's criticisms over staging the tie in Guadeloupe. Monfils was named along with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon for the singles berths with Edouard Roger-Vasselin an option for the doubles.
It will be the first time that a French Davis Cup tie will be held in the Caribbean where Guadeloupe, where Monfils' father was born, is a French overseas department. But the round-trip for the March 4-6 tie is around 13,000 kilometres, and at the recent Australian Open Monfils said that most of the players, including himself, did not want to play the match so far away.
Noah, 55, who led France to their first Davis Cup title in 59 years in 1991 and who has been asked to take over as skipper for a second time following recent failures and team unrest, said that despite his comments Monfils appeared to be motivated enough. "I hope he realises that he has not done the team any favours," the 1983 French Open winner said. "If we go about this the way that we all know how to do, we can win it (the tie) and I would even say that we can win the (Davis) cup."