As in 2021, the French team was eliminated from the final phase of the Davis Cup 2022 and must therefore go through a qualifying round.
Which is good news for those nostalgic for the “real” Davis Cup.
This ax match is thus played in a format close to the old formula with the principle of home / away matches with two singles on Friday, a double and two singles on Saturday, in two winning sets.
After hosting the weak Ecuador in 2022 at the Palais des sports in Pau, Sébastien Grosjean's Blues are moving this time to Hungary in Tatabánya, a city of nearly 70,000 inhabitants, located not far from Budapest, for a meeting that promises to be slightly more full-bodied on paper.
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Davis Cup: Schedule and results
The Blues will face a team there that they had not met since 1994 (France leads 4-1 in its confrontations).
Objective: qualification for the group stage of this 2023 edition, which will take place next September (September 12-17).
Even if the match is more balanced on paper than against Ecuador, a year ago, the Blues have the favor of the predictions against the Hungary of Marton Fucsovics, ex-31st player in the world, fallen to 71st place in the ATP ranking.
It is the new French number one Benjamin Bonzi, who will open the ball against Zsombor Piros, 23 years old and 182nd at the ATP.
The 45th in the world will have the mission of launching the blue train well.
Finalist of the ATP250 tournament in Pune, the 26-year-old Gardois continued with his first 3rd round in a Grand Slam at the Australian Open.
“
It will be important to be present right away.
I hope to launch the team as it should,
assures Bonzi on the site of the French Tennis Federation.
I know Piros is capable of great wins, he's a good blocker, he moves well.
It will be a great challenge.
We will play outside, we will have the public against us.
They will be overwhelmed.
We will have to be careful
.”
Piros, visibly inspired in the Magyar jersey, notably beat Marin Cilic in the Davis Cup in the past.
First for Humbert
Ugo Humbert will play his first match in this event against the leader Marton Fucsovics.
The 24-year-old Messin, who remains on a 3rd round at the Australian Open, will honor his first selection, he who had only been called up at the start of the internship in the role of fifth man.
“
I was already very happy to have been selected.
Afterwards, the preparation went really well.
Sébastien came to see me yesterday to ask me how I was.
I told him he could count on me!
I am very happy that he is making me play on Friday and that he trusts me
”, slipped the left-handed Humbert on the FFT website.
Read alsoDavis Cup: so much time wasted because of Mr. Pique…
After the premature end of the contract signed with Kosmos on January 12, the Grand Slam tournaments have promised to support the Davis Cup.
But a great vagueness still hangs over the right formula to adopt to restore the image of the competition.
A certainty, while waiting to perhaps find a Davis Cup, closer to its historic format, the France team must do the job, this Friday and Saturday to find a group stage in September, before a possible final table at eight teams in November in Malaga (Spain).
The road is still long and it begins in Hungary.