On a Saturday where all of Guadeloupe
was sun-baked, the French Davis Cup team ignored the heat and humidity
to power their way to an insurmountable 3-0 winning lead over Canada at
this Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group first round tie.
France went into Saturday’s doubles rubber with an already impressive
2-0 lead after Friday’s singles matches and continued their winning
ways with Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ousting Vasek Pospisil
and Philip Bester 76(4) 61 76(4).
This marks the first time since France played Romania, in Bucharest,
in the 2003 first round that they won a tie with an insurmountable 3-0
lead and without dropping a set.
“It is funny how a Davis Cup game can go,” said Yannick Noah, the
French Davis Cup captain. “I think we were mentally superior. I don’t
know if you talk about confidence. I don’t know what it was, but they
had a lot of opportunities today and it could’ve been a five-setter very
easily.”
There were warm exchanges between the two teams after France took
permanent control of this weekend’s tie, most especially the friendly
hug shared between France’s captain Yannick Noah and Canada’s captain
Martin Laurendeau.
The music and chanting continued as those in the stands eventually
broke out to sing Les Marseillaise, France’s compelling national anthem,
as the team carried a French flag around the court in celebration.
Much of the drama on Saturday was in the closely contested opening
set. In fact, the French had to save four set points when serving at 4-5
to force the decisive tiebreaker. Once the French came through the
competitive tiebreaker it would be clear sailing through the second
set.
Canada also campaigned hard for the third set as well, but it was not
meant to be their day in paradise. In the third set tiebreaker, Tsonga
gave France the winning advantage with a forehand winner that presented
France with a minibreak and a 3-2 lead. On the final two points of the
tiebreaker, a serving Gasquet hit a backhand volley winner followed by a
service winner to take the match.
“We stayed really solid,” Tsonga said. “Today we were a little bit
lucky in those points. We’re done and we’re just really happy because we
did a great job.”
The Canadians knew they had opportunities in the doubles, but weren’t able to take the point.
“We had chances in the first set and I thought we were playing pretty
well,” Pospisil said. “It was tough to lose that one, but then they
played well. That’s the way it goes.”
Laurendeau understood that being without his top play Milos Raonic
and doubles star Daniel Nestor would always present an uphill battle
this weekend.
“I thought today we were the better team for two of those three sets
and we could’ve won the first and the third,” Laurendeau said. “That’s
the way it is and it was tough from the get go and the guy gave it all
we had.”
Source: DavisCup.com
