Present in the list of players of the Team France to face Croatia in the final of the Davis Cup, Tsonga answered questions about his fitness and also his approach to this final.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, absent from the 2018 Davis Cup campaign until the final against Croatia, from Friday to Sunday in Lille, blamed his left knee for keeping him out of action for more than seven months. is committed to "removing doubts" in his race against the clock.

Q: Where do you physically stand, two months after your return from injury?

A : "After Bercy, I knew pretty quickly that I was going to be part of the team, I had time to prepare the course. Before coming, I continued to strengthen my muscles, to do cardio to really get here in the best conditions to start the course, where we worked in the continuity of what I started before. I really increased the workloads, my ability to keep going over time has clearly increased. At the game level, I spent a lot of time on the field. All accumulated, we progress and the goal is eventually to show on the field if I am aligned. "

Q : When you came back to competition in mid-September, was this Davis Cup final a goal?

A: "Of course, it was in a small corner of my head. It was not an obsession, my obsession, it was to resume the game and regain form. The Davis Cup, I also knew it was not my responsibility, it was the captain's choice. I was not putting any pressure on it but I had it in the back of my mind, I thought it was a nice goal, it would be nice for me. But that's not something that obsessed me in my recovery. "

Q : Given your almost virgin season, have you been surprised that Yannick Noah is appealing to you?

R: "We had some exchanges, I told him that if I was selected, I would do anything to be on top. He had to judge that I was capable of it. I hope I will not disappoint him. "

Q: You have not played a match in five sets since mid-January (2nd round of the Australian Open against Shapovalov). Do you still have doubts about your ability to do this weekend?

A: "The objective of the last two, three weeks was to remove those doubts, (on the fact) to know if I was able to hold a match in five sets. We worked for that. Now, there is never certainty but we try to arrive in time on all checkpoints to say that it's good, that we are ready to fight in a match in five sets. It's been fifteen years since I play, I have benchmarks to know if I can hold or not. In this case, for the moment, all the lights are green. "

Q : The French team has lost the last four finals it has played on clay. What does it inspire you?

A: "In 2014, we lost against the Swiss (Federer and Wawrinka) because they were better than us. We have won hard games, on earth, we have also lost on hard in the same way as on earth, it is not a factor for us. The factor is going to be our ability to be very good this weekend. "