France captain Yannick Noah said his team could go on to lift the Davis Cup after wrapping up a 4-1 first-round victory over Japan yesterday.
Entering the final day’s reverse singles in Tokyo with an unassailable 3-0 lead, the nine-time champions chose to rest Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon and split the two dead rubbers.
Doubles specialist Nicolas Mahut replaced Gasquet and took the first set off Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1 before a wrist injury ended the Japanese player’s hopes of a comeback.
Photo: EPA
Pierre-Hugues Herbert, the other half of the world’s top-ranked doubles pair who clinched France’s third point on Saturday, took Simon’s place in the abbreviated singles.
However, he was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Yasutaka Uchiyama as Japan avoided a whitewash in the absence of world No. 5 Kei Nishikori, who dropped out the World Group clash citing a busy schedule.
“If all my players are ready, then we have the possibility to go all the way,” said Noah, a Davis Cup runner-up in 1982. “That’s what we should aim for — the win the whole thing, but to do that we have to be at 100 percent in the next three ties.”
Photo: AP
Noah could have a selection headache for the quarter-finals in April, when France are to face either Britain or Canada.
With their two highest-ranked singles players, Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, also available, Noah could be tempted to tinker with his lineup as France look to capture the Davis Cup for the first time since 2001.
“I would take them right away, but I would only pick them for the right reasons,” Noah said, pointing to the camaraderie in a team that spent three weeks preparing for the Japan tie.
“In the next two months some players will play five, six or seven tournaments and a lot can happen — guys who show up, guys who play well, others who get hurt. We have to wait and see,” he added.
France faced little resistance from Japan, who are to face a battle to retain their World Group status.
Japan captain Minoru Ueda knows talisman Nishikori’s involvement will be crucial in September to keep his team among the Davis Cup elite.
“We must win the playoff and stay in the World Group, so it’s important we have Nishikori available,” he said. “We need Japanese players to perform better at Grand Slam events in order to be able to compete at this level.”
Young rookie Jordan Thompson claimed a winning double as Australia completed a 4-1 Davis Cup World Group victory over the Czech Republic in Melbourne.
The 22-year-old, who was handed his debut by captain Lleyton Hewitt after Bernard Tomic made himself unavailable citing scheduling issues, won his second singles rubber of the tie on the Kooyong Stadium hard court.
Thompson, ranked 65, fought off 157th-ranked Jan Satral 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in 91 minutes to follow his 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 upset of 54th-ranked Jiri Vesely in Friday’s opening singles.
Vesely earned the Czech Republic’s only point of the tie when he downed Sam Groth, who stood in for Nick Kyrgios, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in yesterday’s other reverse singles.
Australia are to face a home tie against the US in the quarter-finals of the team competition on April 7-9.
“It’s a pretty quick turnaround, eight weeks or so, so the players get to go away and play in a few big tournaments before that, but I’m pretty happy with the way the boys are hitting it at the moment, so hopefully they come back playing just as well,” Hewitt said.
Asked if Tomic would be considered for selection to play the US, Hewitt said: “Ah. I don’t know. Not sure. Can’t answer that right now.”
Australia were always in control of the Kooyong tie against hapless Czech Republic, who played without world No. 12 Tomas Berdych and experienced Radek Stepanek, who withdrew from the doubles with injury.
Doubles pair John Peers and Groth secured the tie for Australia when they raced through the scratch Czech Republic pairing of Vesely and Satral 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in Saturday’s doubles.
Australia now lead the Czech Republic 8-1 in the Davis Cup competition.
Australia, 28-time winners, have not won the Davis Cup since 2003 and only returned to the competition’s top tier in 2014 after a six-year absence.
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