No bad surprise for the Blues. The France Davis Cup team qualified for the group stage of the Davis Cup after dominating Ecuador on Saturday March 4 in Pau. After the two singles victories of Arthur Rinderknech and Adrian Mannarino on Friday, the doubles composed of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut ensured the third decisive point against Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo (6-3, 7-5) without trembling. This success allows the French team to join the final phase of the competition, which has once again adapted its formula. The Blues have an appointment from September 14 to 18, in an as yet unknown location.
3⃣-0⃣ FRANCE
The Blues qualify for the group stage of the 2022 Davis Cup Finals #DavisCup
Victory 6-3 7-5 for Herbert and Mahut over the double Escobar / Hidalgo pic.twitter.com/OQznrX01ll
— FFT (@FFTennis) March 5, 2022
The unknown, the French double has not known him for a long time. Even if their modest adversaries of the day are not references in the specialty, Herbert and Mahut have seen others. Favorites, they assumed their status from the start, breaking quickly to lead 3-0 in the first set. This quickly acquired advantage, they were able to content themselves with unrolling, carried by the public, and without needing to really force (6-3).
Is it out of overconfidence, or even ease? The French duo got into slight difficulty alone, when Nicolas Mahut trembled on his service game at 2-3, signing three double faults. An odd fortunately quickly caught up with the next game to return to height. Mahut seemed to fall back into his trap of the day when concluding, signing two new double faults on the first two match points obtained by France. The third was not missed to bring Ecuador to its knees.
This first obstacle successfully cleared and, to tell the truth, unsurprisingly, the Blues will get to the heart of the matter in September. The sixteen qualified nations will be divided into four pools of four teams, in four locations to be defined, from September 14 to 18. It will then be necessary to finish among the first two to reach the final phase of the Davis Cup 2022. The Blues could meet Spain, Australia, the Netherlands or even South Korea, which are among the other first qualifiers. Russia was excluded, a few months after winning the 2021 edition.