France captain Yannick Noah’s gamble on players and court surface on Friday backfired against Croatia in the Davis Cup final.
Noah chose Jeremy Chardy and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to meet Croatia on indoor clay, but they were thrashed in straight sets on the first day, leaving the Croats on the verge of their second Davis Cup crown.
Borna Coric dismantled Chardy 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, and Marin Cilic defeated Tsonga 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in the opening singles.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Croatia, who won their sole title in 2005, lead 2-0 and could have relieved the Davis Cup from the defending champions by winning the doubles yesterday.
The Croatians clearly have the best players, who have not lost away from home since 2015.
History also plays in their favor: Not since Australia in 1939 has any team recovered from a 2-0 deficit in a final.
With the French missing their three highest-ranked players — Richard Gasquet pulled out injured, while Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon were overlooked — Noah decided to open with Chardy instead of Lucas Pouille, who clinched last year’s final.
Tsonga was sidelined by a knee injury for seven months until September. His lack of competitive matches became obvious, as he was trailing in all aspects and injured toward the end of his match.
“You can try to rewrite history, but it does not work that way,” Noah said when asked about his selections.
However, a glimmer of hope remains thanks to Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
The French pair reached the final at the ATP Finals last week and were slightly favored against Mate Pavic and Ivan Dodig yesterday.
“As long as we are not definitely dead, we always try to hang on to something,” Noah said.
France hoped the slow surface would be a problem for Cilic and Coric, who played last week on a hard court at the ATP Finals.
However, the Croats excelled in front of a hostile crowd.
“The court was actually really good. There were not so many bad bounces, it was quite hard, even for indoors,” Cilic said.
Croatia are trying to win their second Davis Cup title in their third final, while France are bidding for an 11th title.
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