France have appointed former player Sebastien Grosjean as the captain of their Davis Cup team after Amelie Mauresmo decided not to take up the role she had earlier signed on for.
Mauresmo would have become the first woman to have led the French team in Davis Cup tennis from 2019 but she opted out of the role after having earlier agreed for it. Instead, she signed on to take up the role as a coach of French player Lucas Pouille.
The good news, however, is that France have been able to secure the services of Grosjean, who will now take over the role after Yannick Noah. Noah decided he wouldn’t continue in the Davis Cup captaincy role, and even called the new format of the tournament as “not Davis Cup“.
In a statement, Grosjean thanked French tennis federation and Pierre Cherret for his appointment and said he was incredibly proud to have been afforded the role.
“I would like to thank Pierre Cherret and the Executive Committee of the FFT (French tennis federation) for the trust they place in me, and I am going to work now to take up this magnificent challenge.”
Grosjean comes with a playing pedigree of his own, having won four ATP singles titles during his 14 years of playing professional tennis. He was also runner-up on nine other occasions but his best performances came at the 2001 Australian Open and French Open and the 2003 and 2004 Wimbledon where he made it to the semi-finals.
He was also a finalist at the Miami Masters in 1999 and won the 2001 Paris Masters by beating Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the final
One of his bigger glories came at the 2001 Davis Cup, in which he was a part of the France side that overcame Australia in the final to win the title.
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