Gasquet out of Davis Cup team

Buenos Aires - Richard Gasquet on Thursday withdrew from the French Davis Cup team to take on Argentina in a quarter-final tie in Buenos Aires this weekend.

The French No 2, who has been suffering with a blister on his foot, will be replaced in the singles by Gilles Simon. French No 1 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga plays in the two other singles rubbers.

Gasquet's absence became clear as the draw was made for the quarter-final which gets underway on Friday.

Instead of him facing up to Argentina's top player Juan Monaco, French captain Arnaud Clement selected world No 13 Gilles Simon, who had been named as first reserve.

The first of the singles sees Tsonga go up against Carlos Berlocq, with Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau playing in Saturday's doubles against David Nalbandian and Horacio Zeballos.