France’s triumph in the Davis Cup shows what a conspiratorial community can achieve. The German national team can also take an example of this.
And that really was it then with the big decisions of the tennis year 2017. With the Davis Cup winner France, who did not do justice to his role as the favourite, but finally did justice to his role as expected. Of course, after this weekend, the question of what-if question arises again, i. e. speculation as to what the first-round loser Germany (against the eventual finalist Belgium) could have achieved in a final match – with the Zverev brothers, Kohlschreiber and Struff.
And one might suspect that nothing more than the brave, bold Belgium with its outstandingly outstanding David Goffin, who scored two individual points. Alexander Zverev showed signs of fatigue during the ATP World Tour Final, whether he could have pulled himself up to a massive effort in the Davis Cup final, remains questionable. In addition, the other Germans didn’t have a golden tennis fall either. At the end of the day, we should be happy that relegation to the second division has been avoided and that a new start can be made in the world group next year.
France appears to be the logical winner of this competition, which in 2017 also developed its charisma mainly in those countries that were involved in the final match for the cup. The golden generation of the Grande Nation is talked about with pleasure, but as individualists they have almost all fallen behind their possibilities – whether Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Gael Monfils, who did not compete in the final. In the widely acclaimed breadth, the French are superb, but none of the musketeers have been able to intervene in the last decade in the power play around the very exquisite world rankings and titles.
Only the big four played the beat, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. And the only troublemaker for this group of extraordinary gentlemen was the muscleman Stan Wawrinka. However, France only joined the circle of many Grand Slam nations which, despite the lavish proceeds from the major competitions, did not produce any more champions on the tennis tour – this applies to the USA as well as to Australia. Only the British were the last ones to cut Murray out of line.
However, the Davis Cup victory corresponds to a tennis feeling typical of France, namely the ideal of a conspiratorial community fighting its way to victory. Hardly any other country lives and loves the Davis Cup as much as France, which applies to players and fans alike. And for a man like Captain Yannick Noah, the last French Grand Slam winner.
As early as the 1990s, when the Davis Cup was of much greater significance worldwide, France was involved in major Davis Cup dramas on a number of occasions, including the victory over the USA in Lyon in 1991. Henri Leconte and Guy Forget formed the French core team against the superstars Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi and the world-class double flat Seguso. Charismatic captain even then: Yannick Noah. Monsieur Coupe Davis.