Davis Cup: The team (and the captain) as a star

The captain has played poker, the team has won: after 16 years the Davis Cup title is finally back in France.

For the fact that Lucas Pouille did not appear to have any other winner than Lucas Pouille, the Frenchman’s applause after his scoring match ball against Steve Darcis turned out to be exceptionally euphoric. The Belgian had only scored four games for himself, but the magic Darcis was able to unfold in Frankfurt in March against the German team with victories over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Alexander Zverev did not want to happen in Lille.

And while the entire French team, including Grandmaster Cedric Pioline and Jeremy Chardy, who always helps out when none of the bigger names are available, piled up on Pouille, the best player of the weekend, David Goffin, had to take note that his two outstanding performances against Pouille and on Sunday against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were unrewarded.

Yannick Noah, the French team boss, played a little bit of poker by nominating Richard Gasquet instead of Nicolas Mahut. Joris de Loore and Ruben Bemelmans almost succeeded in punishing one of the world’s best pairings with Pierre-Hugues Herbert. But only almost.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Noah gave the master of ceremonies and entertainer after the success of Pouille. With ex-FFT President Jean Gachassin in the audience.

The second final appearance of the Belgians within three years turned out to be similar in terms of the result, but different from the basic constellation compared to the premiere in 2015: At that time the British had travelled with Andy Murray, who wanted to cancel the Davis Cup title as the last of the “Big Four” from his Bucket List. This time the Belgians were faced with a team that is one of the annual favourites – due to the wide range of excellent tennis pros. Even if one dominant player is missing.

“We don’t have a top 5 man,”Captain Noah said after the victory,”but eight or nine players who can play with everyone,” a blueprint that could also apply to other nations. Germany, for example. Even though Alexander Zverev has meanwhile advanced to the Olympus of the tennis world rankings.