The line-ups for this weekend’s Davis Cup final between Serbia and France in Belgrade have been announced. In one minor surprise, French captain Guy Forget picked Gilles Simon to start the tie as his No. 2 singles player over Michael Llodra. Simon, who has been playing well this fall, will face Serbian No. 1 Novak Djokovic, whom he has a 1-5 record against and whom he just lost to in Beijing.
French No. 1 Gael Monfils will open the tie against Serbian No. 2 Janko Tipsarevic.
Since Llodra will play doubles with Arnaud Clement on Saturday against Nenad Zimonjic and Viktor Troicki (a pairing that could change), Forget wants to make sure that the left-handed serve-and-volleyer is fresh enough if he’s called upon to play singles on Sunday.
“It’s always a tough choice to choose someone because you let someone down,” Forget said. “I expect Gilles to play a great match against Novak. I expect Michael to play great doubles with Arnaud. They’ve done so many times in the past. That was the best choice for the French team. The Sunday matches probably will count. That leaves me probably some more options doing it this way.”
Monfils and Tipsarevic have split four matches, with the Frenchman winning their most recent one in four sets at the U.S. Open.
“I know Janko,” said Monfils. “He will be very nervous because he plans to come out first on the court in front of the Serbian crowd. It will be tough for him. I will try to be very relaxed and just play my game.”
Tipsarevic responded: “If Gael thinks I'm going to be more nervous than him in front of 18,000 Serbs he better think again. I honestly don't think he can be completely relaxed in front of a passionate home crowd.”
On Sunday, Novak Djokovic will open against Monfils, followed byTipsarevic against Simon in the last rubber, if necessary.—Matthew Cronin