The Davis Cup final sees France take on Belgium at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.
The final tennis event of 2017 will be contested in a best-of-five rubbers format with two singles today, a doubles tomorrow and a reverse singles on Sunday.
Route to the final
Belgium
Belgium started their journey in impressive fashion recording an emphatic 4-1 victory against Germany. The result in Frankfurt was a major upset, with Belgium securing their first victory over the three-time champions.
Steve Darcis, who was filling in for David Goffin, played a key role in helping his country pull off a major upset, first edging Philipp Kolschreiber over five sets before earning a hard-fought victory against wonder kid Alexander Zverev.
Goffin was back in action and proved hugely influential during the quarter-final win against Italy, brushing aside Andreas Seppi and Paolo Lorenzi to easily send his country into the last four. – the world number seven had put together an incredible run, winning 12 of his last 13 singles rubbers for Belgium.
The 26-year-old was to prove the difference in the semi-final, overcoming Nick Kyrgios for the first time in four matches, to help Belgium complete a remarkable comeback and make the final for the second time in three years.
France
France also made a bold statement to get their Davis Cup campaign underway, annihilating Japan 4-1 in Tokyo. The doubles pair of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut set France up for a good start before Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon made sure of a place in the next round.
They continued to look ruthless on route to the final, despatching of 2015 champions Great Britain 3-0 in Rouen. Without then world number Andy Murray Britain struggled as Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans were beaten along with Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot’s defeat in the doubles.
Jeremy Chardy, who hadn’t played for his country since 2011 proved to be an inspired late call-up, taking full advantage of Evans’ lack of match practice on clay to ease past the 26-year-old.
Billed as strong favourites for their semi-final clash against a Serbia side without 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, Les Bleus made an indifferent start as Lucas Pouille was beaten by Dusan Lajovic in the opening rubber. French number one Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was in no mood to see his country miss out on the chance of winning a 10th Davis Cup, overcoming Laslo Djere and Lajovic to seal France’s place in the final.
Star men
David Goffin (Belgium)
After a valiant performance during the ATP Finals last week, beating both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Goffin will be keen to bring his season to a quite fantastic close by helping Belgium claim a maiden Davis Cup.
The Rocourt-born player will be hoping he can manage a knee injury, which has plagued him for quite some time, until the end of this hugely momentous occasion.
Goffin has made good progress in 2017, breaking into the top 10 for the first time in his career and winning his first title on the main tour for three years at the Shenzhen Open in China.
Jo Wilfried-Tsonga (France)
The world number 15 comes into the final fresh and raring to go after failing to qualify for the ATP Finals.
The 32-year-old has enjoyed a rare spell of consistency during France’s Davis Cup campaign after failing to build any kind of momentum on the domestic front.
Tsonga, who made it to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open earlier this year, will be keen to show he is still a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Prediction
Even though France go into this final as strong favourites, with nine previous titles to their name, it seems like Belgium have the more in-form players at this moment in time.
Goffin in particular has been imperious for his country this year and his recent exploits in London last week show just how much of an underrated player he is.
For someone, who was supposedly carrying a troublesome knee injury, he was outstanding against two of the game’s modern greats and also showed tremendous character to make the final after earlier being thrashed by Grigor Dimitrov.
