By Adrianna Outlaw
© Mark Peterson/Corleve

(November 3, 2010) France's Davis Cup hopes have take a serious hit before a shot has been struck in the December 3rd-5th Davis Cup final against host Serbia in Belgrade. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is out for the season due to a recurrence of the left knee injury that kept him sidelined throughout the North American hard court season. The 13th-ranked Frenchman will miss next week's BNP Paribas Masters in Paris and the Davis Cup final in December.

Tsonga opened the season reaching the Australian Open semifinals. Tsonga sustained a left knee patella tear in his four-set Wimbledon quarterfinal loss to Andy Murray and missed all of the North American hard-court summer, including the US Open. He strained his knee again at last week’s Open Sud de France in Montpellier, where he reached the semifinals, falling to fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils, 6-7(2), 6-2, 4-6.

"I will need to have six weeks of complete rest," Tsonga said. "I could have played by taking loads of anti-inflammatories, but the risk is getting injured for six months. It's the hardest moment of my career, along with pulling out of the Olympic Games [in] 2008."

Tsonga, who won the Paris Indoor title two years ago, hopes to recover in time for the Australian Open in January.

 His absence from the Davis Cup final spoils the prospect of a 2008 Australian Open final rematch between Novak Djokovic and Tsonga.

Barring injury, World No. 14 Monfils is an almost certain singles starter for France with 35th-ranked Michael Llodra, hero of France's Davis Cup semifinal sweep of Argentina, 52nd-ranked Gilles Simon and 27th-ranked Richard Gasquet all potential singles choices for captain Guy Forget.