Yannick Noah, the captain of the French team, did not hide: it was first to embarrass the Croats, more than to favor the Blues, he decided in favor of ocher. "They are less strong on clay than on other surfaces, it's a fact," he says. Will that be enough to favor France against Croatia in Davis Cup?

Choosing the clay to neutralize Croatia's Marin Cilic as much as possible is justified; However, historically, for more than 35 years, bet on this surface in the final of the Davis Cup does not smile to the Blues.

++ Lucas Puglia: "I was not for clay"

The less good surface of Cilic but ...

Cilic, N.1 Croatian and N.7 world (29 years), has certainly won two tournaments on clay (Umag 2012, Istanbul 2017), but it is only a small part of the 18 titles he has in his palmares. And Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam winner in which the winner of the US Open 2014 has not, at least, reached the final. He remains, however, on two quarter-finals.

As for the Croatian N.2, Borna Coric, at the gates of the Top 10 at the age of 22 at the end of a remarkable season, he obtained one of his two trophies on ocher (Marrakech 2017) but has never passed the third round Porte d'Auteuil.

The other argument of Noah is to take advantage of the recent presence of the Croatian N.1 and N.2 at the London Masters (Cilic eliminated in chickens, replacing Coric), which reduces to "five days maximum" their adaptation to the clay when the Blues have benefited from three weeks of preparation. With the exception of the double pair Nicolas Mahut / Pierre-Hugues Herbert, finalist of the Sunday Masters.

"There is a time of adaptation on clay, it is basic. You can do one, two good sets with very little preparation, but it's more complicated to make two good matches, " summarizes the captain tricolor.

Four finals on earth, four defeats

The problem is that in the modern era of the Davis Cup (since the establishment of the world group in 1981), all home finals that the Blues have chosen to play on clay have, until then, gone wrong. The most recent was four years ago, in Lille already, against the Switzerland of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka (3-1) - who had also just returned from London - under the captaincy of Arnaud Clement.

Before, in 2002 in Bercy, it was against the Russia of Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov (3-2), and in 1999 in Nice, against Australia of Lleyton Hewitt (3-1), each time under the Guy Forget's team. In 1982 in Grenoble finally, it was against the United States of John McEnroe (3-0). Noah was then on the ground.

On the contrary, the two finals organized by France on inner hard have succeeded him. Against the Belgians led by David Goffin last November (3-2), and in 1991 in Lyon against the American dream team Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi (3-1), thanks to a Henri Leconte in a state of grace.

Nothing to destabilize Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: "In 2014, we lost against the Swiss because they were better than us, he says. We have won hard games, on earth, we have also lost, this is not a factor for us. The factor is going to be our ability to be very good this weekend. "

Three towers on earth, three wins

Relying on a delicate transition between hard and dirt for the Croats, especially after a trying season, may be illusory. Because throughout the 2018 campaign - at their initiative - Cilic and his acolytes have played, and won, only on ocher, proving turn after round their ability to adapt quickly from the hard, after the Open from Australia, Miami, then the US Open.

If they did not measure themselves to specialists, they successively knocked down Canada's Denis Shapovalov (3-1) in the first round, followed by Kazakhstan (3-1) and the United States of the Johnson trio. -Tiafoe-Querrey (3-2).

"We have played three times on clay this season, each time after hard. There are a few more races, slips, defense, but I adapt rather quickly " : Cilic wants to be confident and emphasizes that " the inner clay is a little faster than the outside " .

To the Blues to lie statistics.