Davis Cup Final preview: Can France retain their trophy?
Published:
Odds and preview ahead of 2018 Davis Cup final
The Davis Cup final begins on Friday as France take on Croatia on the clay courts of Lille’s Stade Pierre Mauroy.
Yannick Noah’s side will return to the scene of last year’s victory, where they sealed a 10th Davis Cup win against Belgium.
It’ll be Noah’s final game in charge before Amelie Mauresmo takes control in 2019.
Croatia are bidding for just their second David Cup triumph. They are led by world No. 7 Marin Cilic and were beaten finalists back in 2016.
The format
The two teams will play five matches to decide the winner of the Davis Cup. It all begins this Friday with two singles matches, followed by a doubles fixture on Saturday.
It will all come to a conclusion on Sunday night with another round of singles matches.
All fixtures will be played as best-of-five-set format. The winner of each match scores one point, the first team to accumulate three points grabs the victory.
Who’s in and who’s out?
France are without the crocked trio of Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon.
Lucas Pouille returns to the scene of last year’s triumph and star man Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has made it despite his injury-hit 2018.
Top 20 doubles duo Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert have cemented their positions in the team.
World-number 40 Jeremy Chardy makes up the five-strong French side.
Marin Cilic headlines a full-strength Croatian team. Ranked at number-seven in the world Cilic is coming off the back of the ATP World Finals in London.
Joining him in the team is rising-star Borna Coric. The 22-year-old has a 9 to 6 win record on clay this year.
He did beat Roger Federer on the way to victory in the Halle Open last summer.
Odds
Croatia start favourites at 1/2. This will have something to do with the dangerous duo of Cilic and Coric.
It could swing in France’s favour on Saturday though, Mahut and Herbert form a strong-doubles partnership and made the recent ATP World Tour doubles final.
The French are 6/4 to win a second-successive Davis Cup.
Pouille and Chardy will have to step up and be counted with top-ranked Gasquet unavailable.
There could be a new chapter in the Tsonga and Cilic rivalry. The Croatian has beaten Tsonga in their only match on clay.
The Frenchman did win their last meeting on the hard courts of Rotterdam in straight sets.
Click here for more Davis Cup odds
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
