France qualified for the final phase of the Davis Cup thanks to the victory in doubles of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut at the expense of the Ecuadorians Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo beaten 6-3, 7-5, Saturday in Pau.
The tricolor duo brought the point of 3-0 synonymous with qualification after the victories the day before in the first two singles of Arthur Rinderknech against Emilio Gomez (6-2, 7-5) and Adrian Mannarino against Roberto Quiroz ( 6-4, 4-6, 6-1).
Mahut and Hebert immediately took the lead in the first set as they quickly went 3-0 up, before the Ecuadorians won their first game on Escobar's serve.
Each player then held his face-off until the Blues completed the set.
🎾 It's over!
France qualify for the Davis Cup finals after their victory over Ecuador #lequipeTENNIS
The pair Mahut / Herbert brings the third point to the Blues 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/4zDuS03w9R
– THE TEAM (@lequipe) March 5, 2022
The match was balanced when Herbert conceded the break on a service game in which he double-faulted three times and hit an overlong spike.
The Frenchman redeemed himself in the next game, on Hidalgo's serve, by allowing the Blues to unbreak on a winning return along the line.
First selection for Bonzi
The two teams came to 5-5 when Hidalgo, the weak link in the game, was broken again.
Solid on his faceoff since the start of the game, Mahut then served for the match and the qualification.
A service winner followed by an ace seemed to herald a round of play.
But Mahut wasted two match points on double faults.
The third was the good one.
The last two scheduled singles no longer have any value and only one will be played, between Benjamin Bonzi, for his first selection for the France team, and Antonio Cayetano March.
The consequence of yet another modification to try to make the new format more attractive, the group stage of the final tournament of the Davis Cup 2022 will bring together 16 nations divided into four groups in four cities to be defined and will take place from September 14 to 18.
The first two of each group will meet in the quarter-finals for a knockout table which will be played from November 23 to 27.
Twelve teams are due to qualify for the finals on Friday and Saturday.
Russia, defending champion, was automatically qualified for this final phase like Croatia (2021 finalist), Serbia and Great Britain (guests).
But the International Federation (ITF) announced Tuesday the exclusion until further notice of the Russians in retaliation for the war in Ukraine.