The Davis Cup finals start this Tuesday in Malaga

The 2023 Davis Cup finals start this Tuesday with eight nations, Canada, Italy, Holland, Finland, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Australia and Novak Djokovic’s Serbia, the main icon of the tournament, who will fight to lift the Salad Bowl on Sunday in the end of Martín Carpena from Malaga.

The most prestigious team competition in the tennis universe lands in Malaga for the second consecutive year with the significant absence of Spain, which without Carlos Alcaraz or Rafael Nadal will be the main absence of this edition.

This fact helps the name of the recent champion of the ATP Finals, Novak Djokovic, to attract all attention at the tournament held in the Martín Carpena pavilion. The Serbian arrives after winning the title this Sunday in Turin, defeating Jannik Sinner, leader of the Italian team, number four in the world.

The undisputed number one in the World, who with the retirement of Roger Federer and the injuries of Rafa Nadal has remained the invincible soldier of the old guard, will lead the Serbian team and will try to achieve his second Davis Cup, as he achieved in 2010, although He will face other high-level tennis players such as Jannik Sinner himself or the Australian Álex de Miñaur.

Other top rackets are those of the British Cameron Norrie (18), who will not have veteran Andy Murray on his team due to a shoulder injury that has kept him out at the last minute; the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (29), the transalpine Lorenzo Musetti (27) or the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor (23).

Crossings and schedules

The nations that will compete in the 2023 Davis Cup Final 8 earned their place after advancing through a group stage in September. The qualifiers were held in four cities, Bologna, Manchester, Split and Valencia, from September 12 to 17, with two winners in each group.

Canada defends its title and won Group A in Bologna, and Italy secured second place in that group. Hosts Great Britain achieved a thrilling victory against France in a decisive tie-break in Manchester.

Australia, for its part, sealed the other qualifying spot at stake in that group. Czech Republic and Serbia advanced in Group C in Valencia, leaving Spain behind, and in Split, Holland and Finland beat the United States and hosts Croatia, breaking all expectations.

The quarterfinal matches are as follows: Canada against Finland (Tuesday, 4:00 p.m.); Czechia against Australia (Wednesday, 4:00 p.m.); Italy against the Netherlands (Thursday, 10:00 a.m.) and Serbia against Great Britain (Thursday, not before 4:00 p.m.).

The first semi-final will take place on Friday the 24th at 4:00 p.m. and will pit the winner of Canada-Finland against the winner of Czechia-Australia, while the second will be on Saturday the 25th at 12:00 p.m. between Italy or the Netherlands and Serbia or Great Britain .

The eight teams will compete in direct elimination matches, in which there will be two singles matches and one doubles match to decide their place in the next round.

special atmosphere

In the 2022 edition there were six days of Davis Cup in Malaga that were experienced in a very special way, despite the fact that Spain fell at the first opportunity in the quarterfinals. Beyond the colors of each hobby, thousands of people attended a small tennis city that was built on the outskirts of the pavilion, just as happened this year, although with some slight differences.

From the tournament, now organized by the ITF and not by Gerard Piqué’s Kosmos company, they intend to equal or even surpass the 2022 edition, that of the first Salad Bowl in history for Canada, which was almost full at the Sports Palace Malaga reaching 61,916 fans in total, more than ten thousand per day on average, almost reaching full capacity.

The forecasts of the tournament organizers are good, the president of the tournament himself, Feliciano López, commented last Thursday that close to 90 percent of the tickets had already been sold. Without Spain in the fray, international tourism will be even greater.

That of the previous year is remembered for being the Davis of the domain of Felix Auger-Aliassime, that of a Spain that fought without success with Pablo Carreño, Roberto Bautista, Marcel Granollers, Albert Ramos and Pedro Martínez -without Carlos Alcaraz or Rafa Nadal- until falling in the quarterfinals, or that of the curious support for the Australian countryman Alex De Miñaur, son of a Uruguayan and a Madrid native and raised in Alicante.

This year is destined to be that of the unstoppable Djokovic, but the beauty of this tournament is its surprise factor and the power of the group over the individual. It will not be easy, in terms of success, for her to also be Djokovic’s Davis when confetti rains on the court on Sunday the 26th.