With the Australian Open behind us, we now get a weekend of team tennis on the men’s side with Davis Cup Qualifiers set to determine the Finals Group Stage field. As always, we here at LWOT will preview and predict every match. Who do you think will win?
Davis Cup Predictions: Hungary vs France
Zsombor Piros vs Benjamin Bonzi
Head-to-head: first meeting
Piros, now 23-year-old Junior Slam champion, has been showing a lot of promise on the Challenger Tour though often hampered by injury. Bonzi has been a late-ish bloomer but dominated the Challenger Tour with six titles in 2021 and has now established himself as a main tour player, breaking the Top 50 at 26 years old. Piros has had a mostly disappointing start to the season despite a 3-3 record, winning just three games against Raul Brancaccio in Noumea, losing to Shang Juncheng in straight sets in Australian, and losing in the opening round in Quimper to Antoine Bellier. Bonzi, meanwhile, reached his career-first ATP final in Pune before having his career-best slam run at the Australian Open, coming back from two sets to love down to upset Pablo Carreno Busta in a fifth-set tiebreak. The Frenchman is in better form and the indoor hard suits him as well, having won two Challengers on the surface.
Prediction: Bonzi in 2
Marton Fucsovics vs Ugo Humbert
Head-to-head: Humbert 1-0 Fucsovics
Fucsovics has been on the mend after a rough majority of the 2022 season led to him dropping out of the Top 100. The Hungarian No.1 bounced back well, winning his first title in four years at the Bratislava Challenger and starting this season with another one in Canberra. Fucsovics continued his good form at the Australian Open with a third-round run, holding a two-set lead over Jannik Sinner. Humbert also dropped down to the Challenger level for the second half of last season and while he won just one title, the Frenchman reached the semifinals regularly. Humbert has had an interesting year, reaching the third round at the Australian Open with wins over Richard Gasquet and Denis Kudla but winless outside of Melbourne. The 24-year-old even lost to Gauthier Onclin last week, who had never won a match at the Challenger level before. Humbert dominated their previous meeting, Fucsovics winning just four games at Stuttgart 2021. Fucsovics’s form and home crowd gives him the edge here this time though.
Prediction: Fucsovics in 2
Marton Fucsovics vs Benjamin Bonzi
Head-to-head: first meeting
This is the clash to decide the tie. If Hungary wants any chance of advancing to the Finals, Fucsovics will have to win both ties and either hope for an upset in doubles or a strong showing from an out-of-form Piros. Bonzi will make this very hard though, he is in just as good form and probably the better indoor hard player compared to Fucsovics. However, I am going with the Hungarian in this case, stepping up to the plate with high stakes and the crowd behind him and edging this match out to set up a decisive fifth rubber.
Prediction: Fucsovics in 3
Zsombor Piros vs Ugo Humbert
Head-to-head: first meeting
Two very talented players currently in questionable form. Piros is definitely able to win this match if he brings his best tennis and Humbert plays as he did in his most recent match. If both players bring their best though, Humbert should come out on top on indoor hard. I would also not be surprised if we saw a substitution here from either side if Piros or Humbert look lackluster on Day 1 with both teams possessing strong No. 3s and 4s. For France, we could see Arthur Rinderknech or Adrian Mannarino while Hungary has other up-and-coming players on the Challenger Tour in Fabian Marozsan and Mate Valkusz. For this match-up and with the pressure on, I believe Humbert would win out and seal the victory for France.
Prediction: Humbert in 3
Main Photo from Getty Images
