The Davis Cup Finals are over. How did the first group matches go?

The group stage of the final tournament of the biggest men’s national team tennis competition is taking place this week in Bologna, Valencia, Hamburg and Glasgow. The jousting event, dubbed the Davis Cup Finals, had opening round clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday to qualify for the November play-offs in Málaga.

The Czech team did not qualify for the final event due to a defeat in Argentina in March. Captain Jaroslav Navrátil’s squad is in Tel Aviv preparing for the barrage of games against hosts Israel on Friday and Saturday. Jiří Lehečka, Tomáš Macháč, Zdeněk Kolář and Dalibor Svrčina are in the nomination.

The defending champions from Russia have been excluded from this year’s Davis Cup because of the war in Ukraine. Last year’s final in Madrid was played against the Croatians, who are not missing from the current tournament. How did the first matches on the way to winning the famous “salad bowl” turn out?

Group A

The Italians have the opportunity to play on home soil thanks to hosting part of the event in Bologna. First, however, the Argentines and Swedes will play on the Davis Cup hard surface in Group A. Thanks to singles wins by brothers Elias and Mikael Ymer, the Northerners enjoyed their first point in the table. Even the doubles wins of South Americans González and Zeballos did not change that.

Last year’s finalists from Croatia did not enter the tournament well. The Italians beat them 3: 0, with Lorenzo Musetti, Matteo Berrettini and doubles players Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.

Group B

Group B, played in Valencia, started with the Republic of Korea and Canada. In this case, the final doubles match had to be decided, as Kwon Soon-woo tied the match at 1-1 after Vasek Pospisil’s victory. The three-set battle was finally dominated by the representatives of the country of the maple leaf, the pair Auger-Aliassime, Pospisil coped with the South Korean duo Nam Ji-sung, Song Min-Kyu.

On Wednesday, Spain and Serbia played against each other, but the stars Nadal, Alcaraz and Djokovic did not play for them. All three duels were dominated by the team from the Iberian Peninsula. Singles players Albert Ramos Viñolas and Roberto Bautista Agut and the duo of Marcel Granollers Pujol, Pedro Martínez Portero won their matches.

Group C

Hamburg’s Group C opened with a match between Australia and Belgium, from which the counterparts emerged victorious. After Jason Kubler’s three-set win over Zizou Bergs, the Alex de Minaur doubles pair of Matthew Ebden, Max Purcell added clear triumphs.

The home Germans had a more complicated path to their first final point. Jan-Lennard Struff did get the better of Benjamin Bonzi, but then Adrian Mannarino’s win over Oscar Ott provided France with an equaliser. The final doubles match was won by Krawietz and Pütz over Mahut and Rinderknecht after sets of 6::2, 3::6 and 7::6.

Group D

Group D will be hosted by the Scottish capital Glasgow. The winner of the clash between Kazakhstan and the Netherlands was already clear after the singles. Tallon Griekspoor and Botic van de Zandschulp secured the opening triumph for the land of the tulips. The final score of 1::2 was set by the doubles win of Bublik and Nedovsov, who rather surprisingly defeated Koolhof and Middelkoop, the 4th and 24th players in the world doubles rankings.

Great Britain did not take advantage of the home environment. Although Cameron Norrie tied the score after a win by American Tommy Paul, the turnaround was not successful for the islanders. The doubles offered a showdown between the recent US Open winners. Jack Sock of the US team had Rajeev Ram, a Grand Slam teammate of Britain’s Joe Salisbury, who this time paired with Davis Cup returnee Andy Murray. The overseas pair won after sets of 5::7, 6::4 and 7::5.

Next schedule of the 2022 Davis Cup Finals

thursday, Sept. 15::

Croatia – Sweden

South Korea – Serbia

France – Australia

USA – Kazakhstan

friday 16 Sep::

Italy – Argentina

Spain – Canada

Germany – Belgium

Great Britain – Netherlands

saturday 17 September::

Argentina – Croatia

Serbia – Canada

France – Belgium

USA – Netherlands

sunday 18 Sep::

Italy – Sweden

Spain – South Korea

Germany – Australia

Great Britain – Kazakhstan

Source: Davis Cup, ATP