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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 10:33 a.m., Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tennis: France's Tsonga out of Davis Cup match

Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the finals of the Australian Open.

Associated Press file photo

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PARIS — Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga pulled out of France's team for this weekend's Davis Cup quarterfinal series against the United States with a right knee injury.

Tsonga, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of this season's first Grand Slam tournament, made his Davis Cup debut in France's 5-0 win over Romania in the first round.

He will be replaced by Arnaud Clement for the best-of-five series against the Americans on indoor hard courts in Winston-Salem, N.C., the French tennis federation said today on its Web site.

In February, Tsonga beat Andrei Pavel 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the second singles match to give France a 2-0 lead over Romania. The French team won the next day's doubles match, and Tsonga sat out the meaningless reverse singles matches on the final day.

Besides Clement, France will use 10th-ranked Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Michael Llodra against the Americans.

The United States, which won its record 32nd Davis Cup title last year, will be represented by Andy Roddick, James Blake and Mike and Bob Bryan.