Davis Cup Final, France

Rubber 1, Day 1: [CR4] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) vs. [CR12] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)

Arnaud Clement (French Captain) may regret picking clay, in the hopes of thwarting [CR2] Roger Federer’s attempt at winning his first Davis Cup trophy, instead of picking a surface his team has excelled on.

Tsonga on clay is a mistake and given his recent unpredictable play, it was not the surface for him today.  The first set, Wawrinka simply dominated Tsonga.  Although Tsonga won the second set, he never looked relaxed. Wawrinka was the more comfortable player on the surface.  He moved better and was able to adapt his game to the surface much more effectively than Tsonga.

Dropping the second set did not discourage Wawrinka, he was confident and quickly regrouped to finish what he had started in the first, winning 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. The French team will have to shake off this loss and hope that [CR19] Gael Monfils can do what he has not done since 2013, beat Federer.