2018 Davis Cup Final: France v Croatia

[helterskelter]

Who will win?

Tie is on red clay indoors in Lille. Presumably chosen by France to blunt Cilic's threat. On the other hand, neither Monfils nor Gasquet is even in the squad, and Tsonga, who is, is worse on clay than other surfaces. Full rosters are:

France = Pouille, Chardy, Mahut, Tsonga, and Herbert.
Croatia = Cilic, Coric, Skugor, Pavic, and Dodig.

Strength in depth of the French squad is much stronger, but the 1-2 combination for Croatia is a fair bit stronger. There will likely be a lot riding on an off-form Pouille and on Chardy, especially as Tsonga is lacking match fitness. Too bad they don't have Gasquet. Monfils is injured.

 

[King No1e]

rematch of the world cup final????????
what a coincidence

 

[King No1e]

Hoping Tsonga will play vintage tennis. Really missed seeing him around

 

[helterskelter]

rematch of the world cup final????????
what a coincidence

Yeah, I noticed that too. The odds on those two nations playing the final of team competitions in two major world sports in the same year must be very low indeed. Especially given how small Croatia is.

As for Tsonga: I'm not giving up on him yet, but I think he won't play much next weekend and that, even if he does, he's not really all the way back yet. Perhaps during the Australian swing. More likely, not until the indoor events in February.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

If Croatia missed this opportunity again, that would be really painful.

 

[Mainad]

Who will win?

Tie is on red clay indoors in Lille. Presumably chosen by France to blunt Cilic's threat. On the other hand, neither Monfils nor Gasquet is even in the squad, and Tsonga, who is, is worse on clay than other surfaces. Full rosters are:

France = Pouille, Chardy, Mahut, Tsonga, and Herbert.
Croatia = Cilic, Coric, Skugor, Pavic, and Dodig.

Strength in depth of the French squad is much stronger, but the 1-2 combination for Croatia is a fair bit stronger. There will likely be a lot riding on an off-form Pouille and on Chardy, especially as Tsonga is lacking match fitness. Too bad they don't have Gasquet. Monfils is injured.

Thought Noah had persuaded Benneteau to defer his retirement in order to play for the French team?

 

[Max G.]

Croatia looks better, IMO. Coric has been good this season, especially on clay. Cilic is in fine. They could easily sweep the singles; I think they won't do that, they'll lose one singles (not sure which one) and then Mahut/Herbert will get one doubles win, for a total of 3-2 win for Croatia.

 

[Nostradamus]

Who will win?

Tie is on red clay indoors in Lille. Presumably chosen by France to blunt Cilic's threat. On the other hand, neither Monfils nor Gasquet is even in the squad, and Tsonga, who is, is worse on clay than other surfaces. Full rosters are:

France = Pouille, Chardy, Mahut, Tsonga, and Herbert.
Croatia = Cilic, Coric, Skugor, Pavic, and Dodig.

Strength in depth of the French squad is much stronger, but the 1-2 combination for Croatia is a fair bit stronger. There will likely be a lot riding on an off-form Pouille and on Chardy, especially as Tsonga is lacking match fitness. Too bad they don't have Gasquet. Monfils is injured.

WOW, last year of normal davis cup will end in boring blowout win for Croatia. Croatia deserves it , I guess

 

[slice bh compliment]

Love both teams. Missing richie G and jo.
Franko skugor will be the difference, either way.

Interesting world cup "coincidence."

 

[Fedeonic]

If France wins, it'll be the first time ever that the FIFA World Cup and the Davis Cup champion is the same country.
Only case is the United States in 1999, won the Fed Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup in the same year.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

Croatia looks better, IMO. Coric has been good this season, especially on clay. Cilic is in fine. They could easily sweep the singles; I think they won't do that, they'll lose one singles (not sure which one) and then Mahut/Herbert will get one doubles win, for a total of 3-2 win for Croatia.

Pavic/Dodig really good tho. So that could be the only competitive match that we will see lol.
Cilic and Coric can be down and choke of course.

 

[Max G.]

Oh, good point. I didn't realize how good Pavic was at doubles.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

the last DC...

 

[alexio]

rematch of the world cup final????????
what a coincidence

yeah and i hope pogba will score again

 

[Meles]

Who will win?

Tie is on red clay indoors in Lille. Presumably chosen by France to blunt Cilic's threat. On the other hand, neither Monfils nor Gasquet is even in the squad, and Tsonga, who is, is worse on clay than other surfaces. Full rosters are:

France = Pouille, Chardy, Mahut, Tsonga, and Herbert.
Croatia = Cilic, Coric, Skugor, Pavic, and Dodig.

Strength in depth of the French squad is much stronger, but the 1-2 combination for Croatia is a fair bit stronger. There will likely be a lot riding on an off-form Pouille and on Chardy, especially as Tsonga is lacking match fitness. Too bad they don't have Gasquet. Monfils is injured.

France had a lot of choices and clay indoors was a really bad one for this match. Cilic has done quite well on clay the last two years and Coric is quite literally waiting to bust out on the surface. Then Noah throws out old Tsonga on clay which is a young players surface. Pouille and Chardy were must choices for clay. If Noah had gone hard courts could have gone Monfils/Tsonga in the singles and had some big servers on the French side. Noah better pray Coric is hobbled by injuries.

 

[Max G.]

I would guess they were planning on a different lineup at the time. I doubt Tsonga was their top pick given his form this year. Probably their better guys backed out for one reason or another.

 

[helterskelter]

France had a lot of choices and clay indoors was a really bad one for this match. Cilic has done quite well on clay the last two years and Coric is quite literally waiting to bust out on the surface. Then Noah throws out old Tsonga on clay which is a young players surface. Pouille and Chardy were must choices for clay. If Noah had gone hard courts could have gone Monfils/Tsonga in the singles and had some big servers on the French side. Noah better pray Coric is hobbled by injuries.

Monfils is injured (as usual). Not sure about Gasquet. On recent form, they’d be better off with Simon than Tsonga.

 

[slice bh compliment]

Dear Jo,
We love you, man. Mais oui, mais....
You are (rightfully) feeling a lot of suspicion here. Here's to You and yannick spending some qualité time fueling up with the good old fashioned french swashbuckling emotion. Allez les Bleus!
If Les Bleus win this, Yannick has got to go down as one of the finest captains ever.

 

[stringertom]

Croatia looks better, IMO. Coric has been good this season, especially on clay. Cilic is in fine. They could easily sweep the singles; I think they won't do that, they'll lose one singles (not sure which one) and then Mahut/Herbert will get one doubles win, for a total of 3-2 win for Croatia.

Coric has been a mediocre 5-5 on clay this year with his best win either a straight set win vs PCB at Madrid or a 4-set win over Kohlschreiber at RG.

 

[slice bh compliment]

"Predictions are empty yardsticks when two are alone ...
In the crucible of Davis Cup competition."

-John Facenta

 

[Nostradamus]

https://www.daviscup.com/en/news/297885.aspx

Coric vs Chardy in 1st rubber............. oh boy, hope it won't be a blowout. What a mistake.

 

[Nostradamus]

Davis cup NOT being shown live on Tennis channel ?? is this ridiculous or what ?

 

[Nostradamus]

 

[MCallanan]

Davis cup NOT being shown live on Tennis channel ?? is this ridiculous or what ?

Looks to be live on my end.

 

[Pablo1989]

Who is the girl who is sitting behind the French team? she's smoking hot

 

[mightyjeditribble]

It's not looking good for Chardy, is it. (Only saw the score.)

 

[MCallanan]

It's not looking good for Chardy, is it. (Only saw the score.)

He’s playing a little better in the second.. coming to the net a bit more.

 

[Meles]

The arrogance and foolishness of Noah is breathtaking having this final on clay. With Pouille suspect he's had to go with his young gun Chardy lol on this surface. Hand the final Davis Cup to Croatia.

 

[Meles]

Dear Jo,
We love you, man. Mais oui, mais....
You are (rightfully) feeling a lot of suspicion here. Here's to You and yannick spending some qualité time fueling up with the good old fashioned french swashbuckling emotion. Allez les Bleus!
If Les Bleus win this, Yannick has got to go down as one of the finest captains ever.

France is basically banking on his coaching and knowledge of the surface.

Boric off the court for treatment of some niggle.

Feed of sorts:
http://www.jokerlivestream.com/streamvideo10/chardy-vs-coric-live-stream-4783756.html

 

[Nostradamus]

The arrogance and foolishness of Noah is breathtaking having this final on clay. With Pouille suspect he's had to go with his young gun Chardy lol on this surface. Hand the final Davis Cup to Croatia.

So why is Jeremy playing ? he is the worst clay court player they have. Are all the other guys injured ? it is true that you don't put in injured guys even if they are better

 

[Nostradamus]

Coric looks injured. If Tsonga can somehow win his match, and they win the doubles tomorrow, French can repeat.

 

[Sudacafan]

For me, this is the last Davis Cup.

 

[Meles]

So why is Jeremy playing ? he is the worst clay court player they have. Are all the other guys injured ? it is true that you don't put in injured guys even if they are better

you really should be playing young players on clay. Chardy had done well against Coric on clay so they picked him. Best option if Monfils had been healthy would have been him and Tsonga on slowish permanent hard courts. Of course that is not an easy thing to do in November as outdoors dubious for matches this time of year.

 

[Sudacafan]

It's really unusual to see an indoors clay court.

 

[Meles]

For me, this is the last Davis Cup.

 

[Nostradamus]

you really should be playing young players on clay. Chardy had done well against Coric on clay so they picked him. Best option if Monfils had been healthy would have been him and Tsonga on slowish permanent hard courts. Of course that is not an easy thing to do in November as outdoors dubious for matches this time of year.

Monfils can play but Noah and Monfils is no longer BFF. and they hate each other and Noah kicked him out of davis cup team. with Noah retiring , Monfils will likely comeback next year

 

[Nostradamus]

For me, this is the last Davis Cup.

Even if guys like Federer, Djokovic and Sasha play Davis cup in 2019 ?

 

[mightyjeditribble]

It's not looking great for the French, is it.

 

[Nostradamus]

It's not looking great for the French, is it.

Tsonga must go up the line on his backhand and make Cilic pay for him for picking on his backhand 100 % of the time

 

[Meles]

It's not looking great for the French, is it.

Noah has rocks in his head. Case easily could be made that Cilic and Coric are basically top 8 on clay right now.

 

[Sudacafan]

Even if guys like Federer, Djokovic and Sasha play Davis cup in 2019 ?

It doesn’t change. That new Davis cup is like a Laver Cup.

 

[mightyjeditribble]

This could all be over tomorrow unless Mahbert deliver.

(Sent from my mobile phone.)

 

[underground]

Dumb move by the French. Considering respective forms, the entire team were always gonna be underdogs against Cilic regardless of surface (he even had really good results on clay this year, and yes even Cilic can't choke against this lot). They should have focused on getting 2 wins on Coric and doubles, and play this on grass instead. Same story as in 2014 again, they didn't learn their lesson after they decided not to go for indoor hard/ grass against Stan and got seriously burnt.

 

[NaomiKonjuhPotapova]

If it's 3-0 they burn their Sunday tickets.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

 

[Four-ever]

Come on, Croatia!!!

 

[underground]

Cilic can redeem himself for that choke job against Delpo in 2016.

 

[Plamen1234]

The French shouldnt have chosen clay.And another thing is why you put Tsonga who have played few matches this year against the best Croatian player.It doesnt make sense at all

 

[Hamnavoe]

Hopefully Croatia can get it done tomorrow.

 

[AM75]

Wow, why not let Pouille and Gasquet play? They probably would be a bit better than this.