Davis Cup Final 2018

JonH · All-time great

RE: Davis Cup Final 2018

JonH · All-time great

Not a thing on the BBC about this Final. Sad. Daily Mail have a piece but largely in the context of the future plans and Pique etc.

Meanwhile in the tennis, Coric takes the first two sets against Chardy. I hope France's tactics don't backfire in the first match but Coric proving to be a strong opponent and continuing his recent decent form.

Fancy him for a good showing in Slams next season

JonH · All-time great

...and a straight sets win for Coric.

If Tsonga cant find inspiration and play like it is several years ago, Croatia will quickly have a strong day 1 lead

JonH · All-time great

And cilic sees off Tsonga also in 3 sets. I imagine the French crowd wasnt very happy with a six sets to nil loss today.

Hopefully Herbert and Mahut will keep the tie alive until Sunday

flamingowings · All-time great

JonH wrote:
...and a straight sets win for Coric.

If Tsonga cant find inspiration and play like it is several years ago, Croatia will quickly have a strong day 1 lead

That's more than harsh as Tsonga has been out injured for the best part of this year. If anything, it's madness that they chose clay to play on and unfortunate that Pouille is so badly out of form, Gasquet I think is injured and I'm not sure if Paire/Monfils plays DC or maybe just wanted to start their off season (I vaguely recall something about Paire and the "authorities" not being on the best of terms at some point).

You can see poor Tsonga's reaction after the match here and also the win/loss and surface played of the French DC finals here (spoiler - it would appear clay is not their friend).

Edited - Tsonga's last tournament he played and retired injured was in Feb. He then didn't play until September and and has only played 6 tournaments in 2018. Total. Given that, it's a pretty decent scoreline against Cilic.

-- Edited by flamingowings on Friday 23rd of November 2018 08:42:28 PM

JonH · All-time great

Don't get me wrong I wasn't criticising Tsonga at all - I'm actually a big fan of his. No, I just felt there was no real way he could beat cilic unless he could find a way of playing like he did at his best. And that was clearly a stretch.

So, no, I agree. If it appeared harsh it was just my poor wording. And I agree, why France chose clay I have no idea.

flamingowings · All-time great

JonH wrote:
Don't get me wrong I wasn't criticising Tsonga at all - I'm actually a big fan of his. No, I just felt there was no real way he could beat cilic unless he could find a way of playing like he did at his best. And that was clearly a stretch.

So, no, I agree. If it appeared harsh it was just my poor wording. And I agree, why France chose clay I have no idea.

That's my point though...how can he play his best when he has played 6 tournaments all year? Hopefully Maherbert can at least win the doubles as to not have a complete CRO whitewash.

flamingowings · All-time great

Kyle's coach Rosengren on the DC changes: twitter.com/tennisguru100/status/1066110847724990464

JonH · All-time great

France win the doubles to take it into the final day. I hope chardy plays well against cilic, remembering also he has a British coach in James Davison

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
little asides:

They've have a group of youngsters (and a couple of adults) playing on the court from 10 p.m. till 4 a.m. last night and the night before.

A new clay court needs to be played on to knock out little imperfections and to 'entasse' it (squash it down and firm it up).

Mahut, on the other hand, is making all the journalists disinfect their microphones before he takes them, and disinfect practically anything and everything else that comes near to him (he's a bit germ-phobic.....).
Hi CD - I cant recall your living situation, are you based out in France or out there still from time to time? Either way, I wondered if the French felt confident on this match? My instinct is that Croatia must be slight favourites, rankings are in their favour and Cilic and Coric probably trump Chardy and Tsonga/Pouille overall and must hope to get 3 out of 4 from that singles set. Herbert and Mahut versus Dodig and Pavic is probably one the French are favourites in, maybe a 50/50 call normally but with home status, France probably might edge it. But overall it feels like a 3-2 to Croatia. What is the French sentiment generally?

Jon, I'm now in the UK mostly - in France generally some time over summer.

But, sorry, can't really help re the Davis Cup - I honestly am not a major fan of the Davis Cup, and only follow from afar or if it's on TV and I'm bored.

THere certainly was a huge amount of pressure on the FFT to deliver on the Davis Cup (it was held up as being a bit of a disgrace that a country with so many top players couldn't life the cup, considering it's played every year - one of my gripes).

But as they managed it last year, I really don't think this year is a big deal (although that might just be my gloss on things).

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

THere's been a lot of rancour in France against the new form of the Davis Cup.

Now, it may be that they're licking their wounds slightly from having lost, but you've got Pouille saying he'll never play DC again, Mahut going off on one in a polite-ish way, Yannick Noah going off on one in a less polite way - with some great comments against Piqué along the lines of:

'What has a footballer got to do with tennis? Do I butt into his sport and try and run football? What is he proposing anyway? Just to make money. And will that get redistributed???? Probably not....'

indiana · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
THere's been a lot of rancour in France against the new form of the Davis Cup.

Now, it may be that they're licking their wounds slightly from having lost, but you've got Pouille saying he'll never play DC again, Mahut going off on one in a polite-ish way, Yannick Noah going off on one in a less polite way - with some great comments against Piqué along the lines of:

'What has a footballer got to do with tennis? Do I butt into his sport and try and run football? What is he proposing anyway? Just to make money. And will that get redistributed???? Probably not....'

France