France stay alive in Davis Cup final after winning doubles tie

LILLE: The Davis Cup is entering a brave new world – but it is not leaving the old one quietly.

Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert made sure of that with a gripping doubles win that keeps France’s hopes against Croatia alive in the last final to be staged in the event’s traditional format.

On a rainy afternoon in northern France, more than 20,000 fans packed into Lille’s football stadium to roar Mahut and Herbert to a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) win over Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic.

It meant the last head-to-head Davis Cup final before a football World Cup-style format kicks off in 2019 will stretch to three days, with Croatia still in the driving seat at 2-1 ahead.

Fifty huge heaters dangle above the claycourt constructed under the retractable roof of the Stade Pierre Mauroy.

Organisers could have saved the electric bill and tapped into the energy produced by a passionate crowd, most wearing blue, who never shut up from the first point to last.

The home win kept alive the possibility, however remote, that Yannick Noah’s champions can storm back to become the first team since Australia against the US in 1939 to win a final from 0-2 down.

It is a long shot with Marin Cilic and Borna Coric, ranked seven and 12 in the world respectively, expected to claim the one point Croatia need to win the title for a second time.