Tennis: Pau designated to host France-Ecuador in Davis Cup

They were left in Innsbruck (Austria) at the end of November, eliminated in the group stage of the Davis Cup.

We will find the Tennis Blues three months later in the south-west of France, in Pau, where the Federation has decided to send the France team in early March to play their qualifying round against Ecuador.

The city of Pau has been selected to organize the Davis Cup qualifying round match between France and Ecuador on March 4 and 5 https://t.co/G9MEA839PE

- FFT (@FFTennis) December 18, 2021

The city of Pyrénées-Atlantiques will rediscover the scent of the Davis Cup sixteen years after a quarter-final lost by Guy Forget's gang against Russia's Marat Safin, Nicolaï Davydenko and Dmitry Tursunov.

The winner of this confrontation, which will take place on March 4 and 5 at the Palais des Sports - usually intended for the Élan Béarnais basketball club - will qualify for the final phase of the competition, scheduled for fall 2022. The format of this cleaver duel will be as follows: two singles scheduled on Friday, then a double and two singles on Saturday.

More and more rare encounters on French soil in the future

“The hall, already in tennis configuration thanks to the organization of the Challenger Open Teréga de Pau (February 21 to 27, 2022) directed by Jérémy Chardy, will offer a capacity of 7,359 seats (estimated figure).

In accordance with the choice of the French team, the matches will therefore take place

on a hard court, ”explains the FFT in a press release.

A meeting scheduled on French soil which tennis fans in Pau will have to revel in since, under its new formula practiced for the first time in 2019, the Davis Cup should only offer matches on French territory very rarely.

The 2022 Davis Cup by Rakuten Qualifiers draw in full 👇 # DavisCupFinals #byRakuten pic.twitter.com/o3Uab0SNfk

- Davis Cup (@DavisCup) December 5, 2021

“I am delighted to be playing the Davis Cup at home again.

We will be able to rely on the support of the French public.

I am also very happy that this meeting is taking place in Pau, a sporting city and a Davis Cup city, said Sébastien Grosjean, captain of the French Davis Cup team.

I played there twice in 1999 against Brazil and Belgium, as well as in 2002 against the Czech Republic.

"

This duel against the Ecuadorians should not normally be insurmountable for the Blues, who will have top ranked opponents Emilio Gomez (148th worldwide) and Roberto Quiroz (298th).