Great Britain kicked off the Davis Cup Finals on Saturday with a 2-1 win over France at the Olympiahalle in Innsbruck. Daniel Evans and Cameron Norrie ensured it with their victories in the singles duels and the doubles of Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech, who replaced Pierre-Hugues Herbert, obtained a partial victory that may be important.
The British number two beat Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-4. It was the first confrontation between the two and the 31-year-old tennis player imposed his best ranking (25th against 71st) with few unforced errors (12) and 14 winners in a match in which the serve was far from decisive. Three breaks in his favor did the rest. Norrie, champion this year at Indian Wells, then fought Rinderknech, the Frenchman who he beat 6-2, 7-6 (8). The 12th in the ranking did know how to impose his best serve to avoid conceding a single break and save the four opportunities his rival had to achieve it. In the duel in pairs, Mahut and Rinderknech scratched a victory of merit against specialists Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski (6-1 and 6-4).
Great Britain dominates the head-to-head match against France 13-10 and will be in the quarterfinals, for the sixth time since 2014 and the second in a row, if they beat the Czech Republic (Sunday, 10:00). It is the only nation that has always competed in Davis Cup, since 1900. The Gauls, who beat the Czechs on Thursday, are hanging by a thread and are not dependent on themselves.
Kazakhstan come back against Sweden (2-1)
Sweden, like France, missed the opportunity to qualify for the quarter-finals against Kazakhstan at the Madrid Arena. And that the Scandinavians, who beat Canada on Thursday, were one set away from achieving it, after Elias Ymer’s victory over Mikhail Kukushkin (6-3 and 7-6 (4)) and his brother, Mikael, he will score the first set against Alexander Bublik. But the tall and peculiar tennis player born in Gatchina (Russia) came back (3-6, 6-4 and 6-0) and equalized the series. And the doubles formed by the veteran Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov beat the Swedish duo of Andre Goransson and the dean of the Finals, Robert Lindstedt (44 years old), 6-3.
Now, Kazakhstan, who entered the tournament after beating the Netherlands in the qualifying round, has in his hand the pass to the penultimate round, which would be the sixth in his history. You will get it if you beat Canada (Sunday, 10:00). Sweden will have to wait for a possible triple draw or to pass as one of the top two second teams.
Australia is still alive
With extreme suffering and comeback, but Australia, one of the great Davis Cup classics, beat Hungary (2-1) at the Pala Alpitour in Turin and is still alive in this edition of the Finals, although it does not depend on itself to advance. The day started badly for the Aussies, with the unexpected defeat of John Milmann against the unknown young man of 22 years 282nd in the world Zsombor Piros (4-6, 6-4 and 6-3). Afterwards, Alex de Miñaur saved the furniture against Marton Fucsovics (7-5, 2-6 and 6-7 (2) after wasting a match point at 6-5 on the scoreboard of the third set. Alex Bolt and John Peers also had a very bad time to beat the one formed by Fabian Marozsan and Piros by 6-3, 6-7 (11) and 6-3 after having had two match balls in the second heat tiebreaker.
In their only previous meeting, Hungary upset Australia in the 1996 World Group playoff. However, the Hungarians still have qualification options in a Group D that has become very entangled and whose favorite is Croatia, who will be their rival this Sunday (10:00).
Davis Cup results.