The final phase of the Davis Cup which begins Tuesday in Spain will be without Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. The tournament actually features only two of the top ten players in the world.
Holders of the trophy, the Russia of Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev is excluded from the team competition due to the invasion of Ukraine, as is its female counterpart, the Billie Jean King Cup.
The eight teams qualified at the end of the group stage organized in mid-September will meet in the Andalusian city of Málaga: Spain, Croatia, Canada, United States, Italy, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. It is the first time since the abandonment of the classic Davis Cup formula in 2019 that the two stages of the new final phase have been separated.
Nadal (2e) and Djokovic having been absent for the whole of the 2022 season, and Alcaraz (1er) being injured, the only two representatives of the first 10 positions of the classification expected in Málaga are Félix Auger-Aliassime (6e), for Canada, and Taylor Fritz (9e), for the United States. These two players are in good shape at the moment, but they are in danger of running out of steam: the first was titled three times in three weeks in October, while the second was invited to the semi-finals of the Masters last Saturday. .
If the energy does not fail them at the end of the season, Auger-Aliassime, associated with Denis Shapovalov (18e), and Fritz, to Frances Tiafoe (19e), semi-finalist of the US Open in September, have the means to lift the Silver Bowl. Like the Croatia of Marin Čilić (17e), the only Grand Slam winner involved.
Canadians and Americans will meet in the semi-finals on the condition of dismissing respectively Germany and Italy, with Matteo Berrettini but without Jannik Sinner, in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
On the other side of the table, Australia are opposed to the Netherlands in the opener on Tuesday, and Spain to Croatia the following day. At home, but at the same time as the entry into the running of “Roja” at the World Cup in Qatar, against Costa Rica.
“Of course I would have preferred to be [classé] Spanish number 2 or number 3 if they had been ready to play. We are stronger with them, admits Pablo Carreño Busta (13e), propelled number 1 in Spain in the absence of Alcaraz and Nadal. But I think we can play a very good tournament with Roberto [Bautista Agut, 21e]and why not win it again, like in 2019.”
“We are lucky to have other players at the level to win,” confirms Spanish captain Sergi Bruguera.
Each meeting, until the final, scheduled for Sunday, consists of two singles followed by a double.