The Davis Cup qualifying began on Friday with twelve more teams looking to join Croatia, Serbia and Great Britain in the finals. One extra team will likely be there as a replacement for the Russian Tennis Federation team that has now been kicked out of the tournament.
The top two seeds are well in control in one-sided matchups. France are 2-0 up on Ecuador thanks to wins from Arthur Rinderknech and Adrian Mannarino with the indoor hard courts working well in their favour. Roberto Bautista Agut and Carlos Alcaraz both won easily against Romanian players to put themselves in control on Day 2.
Finland will be confident of taking out third seeds Belgium especially if they can win their doubles match. Emil Ruusuvuori will be key to their chances as he is both in the doubles team with Harri Heliovaara but also currently slated for a very winnable fourth rubber with David Goffin.
USA look comfortable with two wins from two on Friday. Taylor Fritz lost just one game against Alejandro Gonzalez but Sebastian Korda had to tough out a three setter with Nicolas Mejia. Canada is definitely a seed on the way out, in large part due to their stars not competing this weekend. Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov are absent, making it much easier pickings for Tallon Griekspoor and Botic Van de Zandschulp.
Thiago Monteiro kept Brazil’s hopes going by making it 1-1 after Day 1 against Germany. However, if they are to pick up the shock victory he will need to beat Alexander Zverev in what would be the decisive fifth rubber. Italy are still heavy favourites against Slovakia but Lorenzo Sonego’s surprise loss against Filip Horansky means the rest of the tie won’t be a breeze. Sonego and Sinner still should win their reverse singles matches to see them through though.
Casper Ruud will be hoping he has the opportunity to close out the tie with Kazakhstan on Day 2 but it isn’t a guarantee after the Norwegians only went 1-1 on Day 1. He beat Mikhail Kukushkin before Alexander Bublik eased to victory against Viktor Durasovic. Sweden is in a similarly sticky position after going 1-1 on Friday. Elias Ymer beat Taro Daniel on Friday and any success will need to see him also win the reverse rubber against Yosuke Watanuki.
The Czechs struggled as expected in Argentina, going 2-0 down on the Buenos Aires clay. Sebastien Baez comfortably beat Jiri Lehecka while Diego Schwartzman came from a set down to beat Tomas Machac.
On Day 2 in the early Asia-Pacific matches, South Korea confirmed their progression with a 3-1 victory against Austria. Soon-woo Kwon won the decisive rubber against Dennis Novak, winning in straight sets. Australia recovered from an early setback against Hungary with Alex de Minaur and Thanasi Kokkinakis winning their matches in straights following a shock loss for John Peers and Luke Saville in doubles.
To see all our predictions for upcoming matches, based on our machine learning model analysing results since 1960, see our tennis predictions page here.
