Charismatic Noah eyes return to Davis Cup fold

Tom WILLIAMS

French tennis hero Yannick Noah has declared an interest in returning to France's Davis Cup set-up to work alongside his long-time friend Guy Forget.

Speaking to the L'Equipe sports daily, Noah revealed that he said "yes" when asked by Forget to join the team as a coach, but said it was unlikely to happen in the near future.

"When I spoke to Guy, I told him that, if I come, it would be to win," he said. "And if I come, I want everyone to be happy with it. If it's going to annoy people, I won't come."

Noah, though, did admit that he knew little about the current French team and Forget, the current captain of the team, said in the same paper that Noah's return was currently "not foreseeable".

France were eliminated from the 2008 Davis Cup at the quarter-final stage by the United States amid reports of internal rifts in the squad. They last won the competition in 2001.

The possibility of Noah's return to the Davis Cup fold was greeted enthusiastically by France's leading tennis stars.

"I would be so happy if he joined us," said French number one Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, speaking at the Australian Open in Melbourne. "He brought so much to our predecessors, I would really like him to bring something to us as well."

Richard Gasquet was equally effusive in his praise. "Yannick has to come back to tennis," he said. "He's the boss. He has huge charisma and everyone listens to him. If he told us to climb a tree, we'd do it."

Noah won the 1983 French Open, the only home winner in the last 50 years, before captaining the French Davis Cup team to its first victory in the competition for 59 years when they overcame a heavily fancied US team in 1991.

PARIS, Wednesday, AFP