Buenos Aires, Argentina – Former Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will play in Friday's opening singles rubber when France faces host Argentina in a 2013 Davis Cup quarterfinal.
The best-of-five tie will be staged outdoors on red clay at Buenos Aires' Parque Roca.
Tsonga will battle Argentina's Carlos Berlocq on Day 1, while the second opening singles rubber will pit the hosts' Juan Monaco against Gilles Simon.
Saturday's doubles will feature a French duo of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra, while the hosts will counter with a tandem of former Wimbledon runner- up David Nalbandian and Horacio Zeballos, who shocked the great Rafael Nadal in a clay-court final in Chile in February.
Sunday's reverse singles call for the eighth-ranked Tsonga to meet the world No. 19 Monaco and the 13th-ranked Simon to tangle with the No. 71 Berlocq.
Team France is captained by rookie skipper Arnaud Clement, while the Argentines are guided by another former ATP performer, Martin Jaite.
Argentina will compete without world No. 7 star and former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, while France will play this weekend without ninth- ranked Richard Gasquet, who has a blister problem on his foot and was replaced in the draw by Simon. Del Potro also made himself unavailable for Argentina's opening-round tie against Germany in February.
Nine-time champion France is a perfect 5-0 all-time versus Argentina in Davis Cup play, dating back to 1952. The French prevailed 5-0 in their last meeting in a World Group semifinal in Lyon in 2010. France is also 1-0 in Buenos Aires, with that victory coming 31 years ago in the opening round.
France last won the Davis Cup in 2001, while Argentina is still seeking its' first-ever Davis Cup title, having finished as a runner-up on four occasions, including as recently as 2011.
The Argentina-France winner will meet the Czech Republic-Kazakhstan victor in the semifinals in September.
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