Davis Cup: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga still wants to captain France

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reopened the Davis Cup file at his own tournament. Aged 41 and retired since the 2022 French Open, he told RMC Sport, during the Grand Prix Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes he owns at the LDLC Arena in Lyon-Décines (18 to 25 October), that he wants to become France’s Davis Cup captain.

“The Holy Grail is playing for France”

“The Holy Grail is playing for France and passing on what you have experienced, trying to take a group to the top and helping them grow, all of that,” he told Eric Salliot. “To call it a dream would be a big word, it doesn’t keep me up at night,” he adds. The desire goes back a long way: “when you have had that in your blood […] I did it all through my career.”

An occupied seat, a weakened captain

The job is not vacant. Paul-Henri Mathieu has held it since November 2023, after two years as the French federation’s high-performance director, and his record stands at five wins and four defeats. The same outlet describes him as weakened by three campaigns that fell short, to the point of writing that he “might not survive”. Tsonga had already applied three years ago, and his candidacy was rejected over possible conflicts of interest with his academies.

On the job itself, he already has a conviction: “You have to be able to leave your best player out. Yannick Noah made choices nobody understood […] But who won the Davis Cup twice? Who is our greatest captain?” Nothing is official for now: no formal candidacy this year, no end of mandate announced, no successor named.