Bernard Giudicceli attacked Nicolas Mahut, who had blamed him for his handling of the Davis Cup format change, in terms that did not please several French tennis personalities.
“Mahut says we lost four years? He speaks without knowing anything at all. Not only did we not lose years, but we saved the Davis Cup.” Giudicelli said.
“The old format didn’t work because it no longer attracted the best players. Sponsors wanted to abandon us and the race was losing prestige.
“In recent years we have seen great players appear again and different nations rise in category because they have good players.” Giudicelli added.
Mahut on February 2nd had criticised the role of Giudicelli in the evolution of the format of the Davis Cup.
He had indeed been in the front line for the signing of the contract with the company Kosmos in 2018.
However, Mahut insisted that Giudicelli had a large part of the responsibility in this fiasco.
Giudicelli assures that the Angevin “is someone who speaks without knowing, quite simply”, assuring that the supporters of Kosmos had “saved” a competition “that the best players no longer played”.
“Look what happened in Greece-Ecuador, thousands of people in a Group I tie between two countries with no tennis tradition. Mahut could become a journalist, he seems to have a knack for criticism.” Giudicelli said.
“He is ignorant.It is not a 41 year old who is going to explain to a 20-22 year old how things are supposed to work. It’s good to retire and become a journalist.” he added.
Davis Cup is one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. It has a legacy of more than 100 years.
The tennis tournament in 2019 got a revamp as the Gerrard Pique’s Kosmos Group took the reins of hosting and managing the event in a $2.5 billion deal for a 25 year contract
