[Truc]

Exactly, and Seb had a hard time against his Bye too.
But I listened again to that part of the audio interview and he doesn't say it's a *player*, actually, so let's forget about it. He's being way too nice with Gilles in the interviews, it can't be him either.

Thanks for the interview, it does feel like a breath of fresh air, even the Forget DC interviews are a bit more interesting. Jo also had the best results ever registered for the *endurance* during these tests?! That's quite crazy! Or are they talking about the average?

(... Rafael Nadal, qui est tout de même le meilleur joueur du monde...
Forget calling Nadal the best player in the world, what an awesome typo! )

[Truc]

Not much more informations in today's article in L'Equipe.
Wino gave Hagel 3 full pages of instructions about Jo and what they need to do exactly in training with him. Wino will be there only for the matches (the question of the private coaches was one of the main issues last year when Forget got criticized).
Jo says it was very moving to put on the sweat suit of the French team for the first time. ^^ Everybody in the team seems sure he will play well - beginning with Jo himself.

[Puschkin]

Originally Posted by Truc

Everybody in the team seems sure he will play well - beginning with Jo himself.

I hope he will win his matches, because if not, he will get to know the tough side of the coin rather quickly.....

Originally Posted by Truc

Forget calling Nadal the best player in the world, what an awesome typo! )

[pascal'rG]

Forget called Nadal the best defender in the world not player.... transcription error...

[Truc]

Les nouvelles du jour dans l'Equipe...
Tsonga et Llodra sans valises
PARTIE HIER MATIN, l’équipe de France masculine est bien arrivée à Sibiu où elle affrontera la Roumanie au premier tour de la Coupe Davis, à partir de vendredi. Après un voyage d’un peu plus de cinq heures, avec une escale à Munich, les Français ont toutefois constaté une absence notable après leur atterrissage vers 16 heures : les valises de Jo-Wilfried Tsonga et de Michaël Llodra avaient raté la correspondance. Ce n’est toutefois pas à cause de ce manque que le récent finaliste de l’Open d’Australie a été dispensé d’entraînement sur le court hier après-midi car ses raquettes étaient bien arrivées. Toujours prudent, à cause de son dos fragile, Tsonga a préféré commencer par une séance de préparation physique pour évacuer les tensions dues au voyage aérien. Ce sont Richard Gasquet et Arnaud Clément qui ont étrenné le terrain de la salle de Sibiu, dont la rapidité correspond apparemment à celle des courts d’entraînements de Roland-Garros où les Français avaient évolué ces deux derniers jours.
ON S’ARRACHE LES BILLETS. – Il a suffi de vingt minutes pour que tous les billets mis en vente à Sibiu aient été vendus. Il faut dire qu’ils étaient bien peu nombreux : 200 en tout. La petite taille de la salle (1 900 places) et l’importance des contingents cédés aux clubs roumains (700), à la Fédération française (400), aux invités des Fédérations roumaine et internationale, et aux sponsors expliquent ce rationnement.

Richard and Arnaud practiced for the 1st time yesterday and the court seems to be as quick as the one they were training at in Paris.
All the tickets for the tie were sold in 20 minutes only because there were only 200 tickets for the public! (It's a very small venue and the rest was already reserved for the clubs, the tennis associations and their guests, the sponsors…)
And since everybody is dying to know how Djo is doing: his luggage was lost during the transit (same for Mika) and he didn't practice yesterday because he needs to do some physical training first after a flight for his back.

[Puschkin]

Originally Posted by Truc

Les nouvelles du jour dans l'Equipe...
Ce sont Richard Gasquet et Arnaud Clément qui ont étrenné le terrain de la salle de Sibiu.....

Luckier or smarter with the luggage? What about Simon's? One bag lost, the other one delivered?

[Truc]

Clearly smarter as it didn't happen to "our" boys.

Pics of the training Gasquet-Clément here: http://www.matiu.ro/main.php?g2_itemId=18151
(I hope Arnaud's foot is OK, he had a problem with it in Australia.)

[Ome]

Originally Posted by Truc

Clearly smarter as it didn't happen to "our" boys.

Pics of the training Gasquet-Clément here: http://www.matiu.ro/main.php?g2_itemId=18151
(I hope Arnaud's foot is OK, he had a problem with it in Australia.)

Thanks for the pics, Fran

Arnaud

[Truc]

De rien, Ome!
I guess it's just precautionary for Arnaud, Forget wouldn't have picked a guy who is injured when he had so many other options. But that's the kind of things they could have asked on Sunday instead of 86 questions about the same topic...

There also are some regularly updated pics here, but they're with watermarks.

[Ome]

Arnaud didn't look too pleasant in that picture

I want more pictures of Gilles

[InfiniteSadness]

Me too. Pics from Gilles, please!

[Truc]

I know, less pics of Forget stretching at the net, please, and more pics of the players...

I have very low expectations for Gilles, but he's the winner of the Romanian Open, after all, so they could take a couple of pics of him too!

[Via]

many thanks for the news and pics, fran

i had no idea that arnaud had a foot problem in australia! not even during the AO doubles did any commentator mention it.

the lost luggage is a funny story. yes i can imagine some are particularly fastidious with theirs, sticking their names and destination in big, bold, colourful fonts

[fiigblarke]

Hey, I'd just like to ask if there will be any online live streaming coverage of these matches on the internet? If so, could someone please post a link? Thanks.

[Truc]

I second that question, I need a livestream too...

I didn't know about Arnaud's foot either, Via. After the Schüttler match he said he was fine and just played like crap, but at the end of the tournament, everybody (also Mika) started admitting it was really hampering him a lot at a time and he was doubtful...
But they don't mention it in the training reports, so I guess it looks worse in the pics than it is.
However, he is looking really good in the pics from Sibiu! (-wise, I mean). He said they are very eager with Mika to take their revenge for last year. (http://www.lequipe.fr/Tennis/20080205_205402Dev.html)