TENNIS – For the 2014 Davis Cup quarter finals, Germany travel to Nancy to play France without Tommy Haas and Philip Kohlschreiber. Also Richard Gasquet has pulled out with a lower back injury but French captain Clement can still pick from Tsonga, Monfils and Benneteau. Simone Kemler
French number one Richard Gasquet has pulled out of the 2014 Davis Cup quarter finals by BNP Paribas World Group quarterfinal clash with Germany, citing a lower back injury. According to a statement from the French Tennis Federation earlier on this week, Gasquet requires eight days of rest to recover. Captain Arnaud Clement will select either Edouard Roger-Vasselin or Michael Llodra to replace Gasquet. Clement must name his final team no later than one hour before the draw, which takes place on April 3rd. In any case the replacement will join Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Julien Benneteau in a strong French line-up.
The clash in the Palais Des Sports Jean Weille in Nancy will be the tenth meeting between the two nations, with France leading the head-to-head record 7-2. Both France and Germany secured comfortable wins in the first round of this year’s competition, defeating Australia and Spain respectively.
However – as the German Davis Cup team finished the first round against Spain in Frankfurt in a complete communication disaster with major difficulties still in the loop regarding Kohlschreiber and injury-cancellation of Haas and Mayer, the German head coach Carsten Arriens travelled to France with ‘a bunch’ of youngsters that primarily file this particular trip under ‘Davis Cup Premiere’ in order to gather lots of experience. Tobias Kamke, Jan-Lennard Struff, Peter Gojowczyk and Andre Begemann can definitely be labelled as the underdogs in this tie.
All in all German tennis-fans hope for a ‘reboot’ with the German Davis Cup team because existing difficulties especially between Arriens and Kohlschreiber make the team vulnerable. Some media even report that Philipp Kohlschreiber will never be asked to play Davis Cup for Germany again, as Carsten Arriens does not put faith in a cooperation with the current world no. 25 and Germany’s no. 2 from Augsburg any more. Tommy Haas, the actual German no. 1 pulled out of the Miami Masters due to another shoulder injury and in consequence could not play in France. April 3rd also sees Haas’ 36th birthday, so his participation in German Davis Cup ties to come are up to chance and speculation.
