Forget Expected to Give up Davis Cup Duties

Written by: Staff on 14th November 2011

Forget Expected to Give up Davis Cup Duties

France's Davis Cup captain Guy Forget (R) leads a training session of the French team at Los Califas bullring in Cordoba, southern Spain, on 14 September 2011. Los Califas is the place where the Davis Cup semi final between Spain and France will take place, from 16 to 18 September 2011. EPA/RAFA ALCAIDE |

Guy Forget is expected to announce 2012 will be his final year as France’s long serving Davis Cup captain after being handed the problematical task of taking over the reins of the BNP Paribas Masters as the new tournament director.

French federation general director Gilbert Ysern confirmed the new appointment of Forget in succession to Jean-François Caujolle who is stepping down after five years in the job at the Palais Omnisports de Bercy.

Forget’s contract with the FFT as captain expires at the end of 2012 and he was named as successor to Yannick Noah in 1999.

But with the Bercy tournament’s welfare endangered next year by the ATP World Tour calendar change that sees it immediately before the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, the FFT clearly wants one of their most respected figures in charge of the tournament.

Ysern maintained the handover from Caujolle to Forget is being done at a time when is “the tournament in a much stronger state than it was before Jean-François took over.” The attendance was up by more than 8,000 but the event was not screened on terrestrial French television and newspaper coverage was reduced.

Forget won the Davis Cup as a player in 1991 when he beat Pete Sampras to earn his team victory over the United States in Lyon. He played the doubles in France’s 1996 Davis Cup win against Sweden in Malmo.

In Forget’s initial year as captain France lost the final to Australia in Nice. Two years later, he led France to a surprising act of revenge in Melbourne. Under his guidance, France played two others finals, which they lost, against Russia at home (2002) and Serbia away (2010).

“DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”

Topics: Guy Forget