Finally, France!
It has been 16 years since a very strong and typically “deep team” like France didn’t win the Davis Cup trophy. Since 2001 Team France managed to reach the final on 3 occasions in 2002, 2010 and 2014, but it was never able to lift the trophy.
This year things were different even if Yannick Noah, the Team France captain, didn’t have a stellar team in the final as his best players were Tsonga (now ranked no.15) and Pouille (no.18). But, on the other side; the finalist was Belgium that had as its only weapon an in-form Goffin (world no.7); the other top player was the talented Steve Darcis that is currently struggling in the rankings (no.77), and at the end of the day he was the weak link.
The final
In the first day, Goffin dismissed Pouille 7-5 6-3 6-1 while Tsonga conceded just 6 games to Darcis (6-3 6-2 6-1).
In the second day, Gasquet and Herbert won for their team what was probably the decisive point in doubles against Bemelmans and De Loore 6-1 3-6 7-6 (2) 6-4. At that point, `France was leading 2-1 and they had to “just” win another match to conquer the cup.
In day 3, Goffin defeated Tsonga 7-6 (5) 6-3 6-2, and everything went to decisive rubber that Pouille won without any problem against Darcis (6-3 6-1 6-0) putting the 27,000 people crowd in Lille on fire.
We had been dreaming of it. NOAH
Yannick was overwhelmed with joy after this triumph to comment
“It was a victory we had been dreaming of. It’s a united group. It was a tough weekend against a good Belgian team. Lucas played a fantastic final match.”
| FINALLY!!! |
| Embed from Getty Images |
