The first round of the Davis Cup Finals came to an end, with eight teams booking their respective spots in the knockout stages of the tournament.
Defending champions Canada topped Group A by winning all three of their ties against Italy, Chile and Sweden. Italy’s 2-1 win over Sweden in their final group fixture saw them finish second in front of Chile with two wins in three ties, and reach the quarterfinals.
Group B saw Great Britain win it by winning all of their fixtures. The ten-time champions beat Australia and Switzerland 2-1 before their final tie against France. Dan Evans gave the Brits the lead by beating Arthur Fils 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 before Ugo Humbert triumphed 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5 over Cameron Norrie to level the scores.
The doubles match between Dan Evans and Neal Skupski, and Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin were the decider, and the former won 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) to ensure Great Britain’s clean sweep in the group stage.
It also meant that Australia qualified for the quarterfinals by being the runners-up in Group B.
Team USA were eliminated from the group stages of the Davis Cup Finals
Their final group tie against Finland was a winner-takes-it-all one, and the latter won as Otto Virtanen and Emil Ruusuvuori defeated the likes of Mackenzie McDonald and Tommy Paul. It was a disappointing end to the tournament for a pretty decent team that had two Top-15 singles players and two Top-5 doubles players.
Netherlands and Finland both qualified from Group D with two wins out of three ties.
Group C had three past champions: Spain, Czech Republic and Serbia. The Balkans were given a big boost as Novak Djokovic joined the squad before their second tie against Spain.
Wins from the World No. 1 and Miomir Kecmanovic saw Serbia book their place in the quarterfinals. They were joined by the Czech Republic, their opponents in the final group fixtures.
The Czechs won the tie 3-0 to win Group C while Spain ended their Davis Cup campaign on a high by beating South Korea 2-1.
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