The French Tennis Federation have announced that Lille will host the Davis Cup final for the second consecutive year in November. 

The French city hosted the Davis Cup final last year when France defeated Belgium 3-2 in last year’s contest win Lucas Pouille won the crucial rubber.

It will also be the third time in five years that Lille has hosted the final for the Davis Cup final as they saw the biggest crowd for a tennis match in 2014 to see Roger Federer win the Davis Cup for Switzerland.

The FFT have yet to decide what the surface is but have chosen the same city that saw them beat Spain in the semi-finals last weekend.

This year’s final will see France, who will look to retain their title, at home to Croatia, who will look to win the trophy for the second time after their first triumph in 2005.

The final will be the last traditional Davis Cup final as next year’s event will adopt a one week, one venue format involving an 18 team format.

The head to head between the two nations is currently 1-1, with Croatia winning their last meeting two years ago in the World Group semi-finals.

The final will take place on the weekend of the 23-25 of November in Lille.

John Millman has set some high ambitions for the 2019 season as he looks to continue his momentum in Asia next month. 

The Australian defeated Roger Federer at the US Open earlier in the month to reach the last eight in New York before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

The 29 year old is looking to build on his momentum in Asia next month where he heads to Japan and China for more wins.

In an interview with Fox Sports Australia, Millman revealed that he is still recovering from a hip injury and has withdrawn next week’s Chengdu Open.

“I will be pulling out of Chengdu today. I tested it yesterday and it’s improving but not ready, I’m planning on playing Tokyo still. I didn’t know it was a tear until I had a scan in Austria. It’s a couple of weeks thing only, but it was quite painful.”

After Tokyo, Millman plans on playing events in Shanghai, Stockholm and Basel before ending his season at the final masters 1000 event of the season in Paris.

However the world number 37 has revealed that he has motivation to end the season well as his aim is to be seeded for the grand slam events in 2019.

“The next step for me is to make the most of it and win matches and go on another big run after the US Open,” Millman explained.

“I have some ranking points to defend toward the end of the year, but after I ticked off my goal for the year of making the top 50, the next step is getting a seed at a Grand Slam, which is top 32. I’m getting close now.”

The ITF announced a few weeks ago that the grand slam events for 2019 will still have 32 seeds despite rumours that they would change to 16 seeds.

The Australian’s next tournament is in Tokyo, Japan which starts on the 1st of October.

World number one Rafael Nadal has officially withdrawn from the Asian swing after a consultation with a doctor in Barcelona. 

The Spaniard suffered a knee injury during his US Open semi-final with Juan Martin Del Potro where he had to retire from the match.

After a consultation with a doctor in Barcelona, Nadal learned that he needs more time to rest his knee and therefore will miss the tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai.

The Roland Garros champion is currently defending 1,100 points from those two tournaments and his latest withdrawal gives the opportunity for Novak Djokovic to aim for the year end world number one.

In a statement in Spanish on twitter, Nadal said the following, “Hello Everyone, as you know I had to withdraw from the semi-finals of the US Open and on Monday I was in Barcelona with doctors to check the situation of my knee,” Nadal claimed.

“The annoyances on my knee are nothing new. We have decided with my medical and technical team not to participate in the Asian tour to recover the knee the way we have always done.”

The 32 year old finished his statement by apologising to the fans and tournament directors of Beijing and Shanghai for not attending this year’s event, “I’m sorry I can’t be with all the fans in China and with the organisers of the Beijing and Shanghai tournaments.”

The withdrawal of Nadal means should Novak Djokovic win the Shanghai masters in a few weeks time then he will be in pole position to end the year as world number one.

As for Nadal his frustrating knee injury continues and he will be hopeful to return in Basel in October. The Spaniard is one of three players also to already qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in London in November as he joins Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic for the ATP’s season finale.