Goffin Forces Live 5th Rubber In Davis Cup Final

FRANCE 2, BELGIUM 2
Lille, France (Indoor Hard)

For the second year in a row, there will be a live fifth rubber in the Davis Cup Final.

David Goffin evened the tie for Belgium at 2-2, defeating France’s top-ranked player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-2, in front of a raucous crowd at Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille, France.

“I played my best tennis on Sunday,” Goffin said. “It’s always special to play the Davis Cup on Sunday. It’s the best day with the crowd and the atmosphere on the court so it was something unbelievable to play my best tennis.”

The Belgian put his country within one match of winning its first Davis Cup title.

Tsonga dominated the first set, cruising on serve while earning opportunities in almost all of Goffin’s service games. The Frenchman held six break points across three different games in the opening set, but the Belgian found his best tennis while under pressure, especially on his two-handed backhand wing.

And once Goffin sneaked out the first set in a tie-break, all the momentum was on his side. Tsonga’s first-serve percentage dropped from 75 to 53 in the second set, allowing the Belgian to return more aggressively. That gave Goffin his first break point opportunities in the match, one of which he converted to claim a two-set lead.

Tsonga loosened up late in the third set once he was down two breaks, but it was too late. Goffin saved two break points at 4-1 and that was the last hurdle he would face ahead of the finish line, closing out his second win of the weekend with a serve that the Frenchman could not handle.

Goffin, who also helped his country to the Davis Cup Final in 2015, did not lose serve against Tsonga or in his first match of the tie against Lucas Pouille.

The last time that France won the Davis Cup, in 2001 (d. Australia), the tie was also decided in a fifth rubber. The French took a 2-1 lead into Sunday’s play before Lleyton Hewitt forced a decisive fifth rubber, which Nicolas Escude won to claim his country’s ninth trophy in the event.

France’s Pouille is scheduled to play Steve Darcis in the fifth rubber — their first meeting — with the title on the line.