There is not much tennis left of this year after the ATP World Tour finals ended with Grigor Dimitrov as a surprise winner. The one titanic battle remaining is the Davis Cup final between France and Belgium.
One of the players I’ve been most impressed with the last couple of years is David Goffin and he is surely key if Belgium is going to be able to win the coveted team title. At the time of writing he’s on his way to beating France’s young hope Lucas Pouille in the first match of the Davis Cup final 2017.
For you racquet fans it’s interesting to note that both these players use relatively light racquets with their retail versions of Prince Textreme 100P
(Pouille) and Wilson Blade 98 (2015)
, which shows that with the right technique and footwork you can play good tennis with a variety of racquets.
Since my home country Sweden hasn’t been much to follow on the Davis Cup scene the last decade or so (especially not compared to the glory days of Edberg, Borg, Wilander etc), I haven’t paid that much attention to Davis Cup, but with little tennis left to be played and watched in the last weeks of the year I will try to keep my eyes on it. It’s after all one of the events the players on the ATP World Tour respect the most.
Back to David Goffin, who beat Federer in the World Tour Finals. What makes him so good and how far does his potential reach? Well, Goffin is all about speedy footwork and a versatile game. His ability to “mix it up” was clearly evident against Federer where he showed more aggression on returns than I’ve ever seen him do before. He was taking the ball early all the time, giving Federer a little bit of his own medicine. And Goffin’s legs simply looked faster than Fed’s in this match and that’s why he ended up winning.
I thought he had a good chance against Dimitrov in the finals as well, but Dimitrov seems to be more mentally ready to fulfil the massive promise his game possesses. And his coach change to Vallverdu has certainly been great for him. He’s still a bit streaky and unstable, but when he pulls it all together he can win a grand slam. I’m sure winning the tour finals will make him more confident in the slams in 2018 and it will be exciting to see him in the Australian Open with players like Djokovic, Murray and Wawrinka back in action. I’m sure all those player who had to sit out a large part of the 2017 season will be hungry, fit and ready to win titles in 2018.
What do you think about the upcoming year in tennis and will you watch the Davis Cup finals? Please comment below!Â
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