Lucas Pouille secured France’s Davis Cup victory last year. The chances of defending the title are pretty good.
The art of repeating a victory in the Davis Cup has recently been passed on to the Czech Republic team: in 2012 and 2013, the team around Tomas Berdych and veteran Radek Stepanek won the title in the most important men’s tennis team competition, and since then the salad bowl has mutated into a challenge cup, from Switzerland via Great Britain to Argentina and most recently to France.
The chances of her remaining there are not bad until further notice: after all, the defending champions will meet the Dutch team at the start of the 2018 campaign, against whom they have won ten matches just as often in the past. Richard Gasquet and Lucas Pouille are to judge it for Yannick Noah in the singles matches in Albertville’s Olympic Hall, and Adrian Mannarino would also be ready if necessary. On the Dutch side, Thiemo de Bakker and Robin Haase, who showed himself to be a real highlight at the Australian Open a few days ago, will try his luck.
A win would be against the winner from the match between Italy and Japan, where the Asians have a home advantage – but without Kei Nishikori, who is known to be making a comeback on the ATP-Challenger series in the USA.
A real big chunk could probably only reach the L? Équipe Tricolore in the semi-finals – depending on which team the Spaniards, who are clear favourites against a Great Britain without Andy Murray and (at least on the first day) Kyle Edmund, will play in a possible semi-final.
Or the winner of the match between Australia and Germany, who will also be in the upper half of the 2018 tableau.
The favourites on the other side of the draw are rather diffuse: Marin Cilic is in the Croatian team against Canada, but was not nominated for the first day. The USA will be competing with John Isner and Sam Querrey in Serbia – at least not against Novak Djokovic, but on the other hand on ashes. There may still be last year’s finalists from Belgium, but they would need a second man alongside David Goffin, who sometimes contributes a point. Steve Darcis, who took Germany out of the competition almost on his own last year, is no longer available.