Bernard Giudicelli: "Nicolas Mahut is ignorant, he must retire"

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The end of the sports collaboration between the ITF and the Kosmos Group for the organization of the Davis Cup has caused much discussion in recent weeks. There are numerous tennis players who have decided to expose themselves on the matter outspokenly.

Among these is also Nicolas Mahut, who conquered the most important team event in 2017 and also attacked the former CEO of the French tennis federation Bernard Giudicelli. Indeed, most of the CEO of their respective federations voted in favor of the reform.

"We lost four years of Davis Cup. We should never have allowed this. Maybe they thought they were making a good decision, but quickly saw that it wasn't working. Giudicelli also knows what I think of his decision as vice president of the ITF and president of the FFT.

It is clear that he too bears a large part of the responsibility for this fiasco, and I see that he does not question himself."

Giudicelli replies to Mahut: "He has to retire, he is ignorant"

In the last few hours has arrived Giudicelli's strong response, using unkind words towards Mahut, during an interview with the Tennis News.

"He is ignorant. I don't see how a 41-year-old player can explain to a 20-year-old colleague how things are supposed to work. Mahut should retire. Maybe he will become a journalist, this would give him the opportunity to make harsh criticisms.

Which it does quite well already." Some former French tennis players immediately took the defense of Mahut. "On the one hand we have a great man and representative of French tennis, with a great career behind him; on the other, however, a disrespectful, arrogant and incompetent little person.

There is no match between the two," wrote Arnaud Clement on his Twitter account. Julien Benneteau then added: "We cannot speak in these terms of a player who, beyond his record in doubles, has always had irreproachable behavior" . Edouard Roger-Vasselin finally wrote: “You cannot disrespect Mahut like this."