Madrid (AFP)

Without their supporters, the Blues were very scared Tuesday for their first match in the new Davis Cup formula face a team from Japan much better supported by a small group of active fans.

Fortunately for captain Sébastien Grosjean, Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert have held their rank of doubles masters: despite the loss of the first set and a terrible resistance from their opponents Ben McLachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama, they won 6-7 ( 4/7), 6-4, 7-5 in the decisive part.

They thus brought the point of victory to France, Gael Monfils totally extinct having previously lost to Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-2.

"She was good that one!" Said Herbert, very relieved.

The Blues, who feared to lack emotions in this new competition, were served!

"At the level of thrills on the pitch and Marseillaise, I did not have what I felt about the other Davis Cup games, but on the field, yes, even if the stadium was not full, I felt like I was playing an important match for the French team, "commented Mahut.

"It was weird because it was the first time I heard myself singing the Marseillaise," Herbert agreed with humor.

Regarding the affluence on the court 2 (between 10% and 20% of the seats occupied according to the moments is a few hundred people), "when we play a tournament, it happens thousands of times that we play in front of many Fewer spectators than that, "said Tsonga, Uchiyama's expeditious winner in the first singles game (6-2, 6-1).

- Folklore -

If only each point was applauded and accompanied by vocal encouragement ... especially in Japanese.

Faced with the folk group of about fifty Japanese fans who gives voice, proudly stands Jean-Marie in the opposite gallery. In the middle of a small group of irreducible French fans noiseless, he brandished in silence a large tricolor flag.

"We can boycott the Davis Cup, but we do not boycott France and the French!" He asserts, supported by his wife Colette. Members of the Association of French fans of the Davis Cup (Aseft) they decided not to follow the slogan that the association does not make the trip to protest against the new format of the competition.

Tennis fans for over fifty years, they have followed many Davis Cup campaigns in the last ten years at Aseft. But living half of the year in Spain, 400 km from Madrid, this couple from Villeneuve-d'Ascq (North) could not miss the appointment of Madrid.

And even if this new format that includes the 18 nations participating in a week in the same city is "less convenient (for fans) because we do not know how far the Blues go", Jean-Marie and Colette have the intend to stay in Madrid and come back to the Blues Thursday against Serbia Novak Djokovic.

- "We need them" -

Unlike the French, other nations have managed to have groups of supporters, such as these dozens of Kazakhs dressed in traditional costumes, or the dozens of Belgians who pushed theirs and who were helped to come to Madrid by the sports authorities of their country.

Grosjean also indicated that "an approach had been taken to bring supporters" tricolor.

"We can understand the disappointment of the fans, but we need them, the players have responded, they give the maximum for the French team and yes, we would all like to have more supporters to get even more 'Energy in the audience,' explained the French captain.

No problem for the Spaniards side: they are at home and it is in the arena of the sold-out central court that Rafael Nadal and his teammates had to face Russia in the evening. Private Daniil Medvedev, Russia won all three games the day before against Croatia holding the trophy with only Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev. Will they still have strength to resist Nadal and Roberto Bautista?

© 2019 AFP