Benneteau blossoms late
Date published :
01 Sep 2010 - 17:48:49
enneteau blossoms lateJulien Benneteau is not a youngster on the men’s tour, far from it. The 28 year-old turned professional ten years ago and this year’s US Open marks his 29th straight Grand Slam appearance.Until this year, however, the Frenchman hadn’t played a single Davis Cup rubber. It’s hard to believe now, considering what he’s achieved during his first year in the competition.Benneteau has successfully teamed up with Michael Llodra to form a formidable doubles line-up for France. The pair defeated Christopher Kas and Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round and then Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinals, both in four sets.Benneteau also picked up a couple of fifth rubber singles wins, overcoming Benjamin Becker 62 75 and Feliciano Lopez 76(3) 64 to take his unbeaten Davis Cup record to 4-0. An impressive contribution from the world No. 37.Having already defeated Germany 4-1 and Spain 5-0, France now hosts Argentina in the semifinals. Guy Forget’s team is the favourite to reach the final, but Benneteau isn’t taking anything for granted.We know it’s going to be tough,” he said. The doubles will be very important for this tie. Almost in every tie the doubles is very important but maybe in this one it’s going to be more than the others.”It is expected that Benneteau will be joined in the French side by Llodra and Gael Monfils, although the country’s top player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, looks likely to miss out due to a knee injury.I think in the next two years we can have a good opportunity to win,” added Benneteau. We have a lot of players, young players who are like 25, 24 years old, and they arrive in their best shape of their career.With Michael and me, we’re a little bit older but still very competitive in singles and doubles. We have a good mix in this team and we all want to win. This is most important.”Listen to Tom Bartlett’s full interview with Julien Benneteau… Related Audio Interview with Julien Benneteau (FRA) - Semifinals preview If you cannot hear the audio, then please update your media player by following one of the links above.
