The Stade Pierre Mauroy in the Lille outskirts of Villenueve d’Asq has become a popular destination for tennis fans in recent years after hosting the 2014 Davis Cup Final between France and Switzerland and the 2017 Davis Cup semifinal between France and Serbia. The Lille venue was initially named Grand Stade Lille Metropole, and was renamed Pierre Mauroy stadium to honour the memory of Pierre Mauroy, the former Mayor of Lille and former French Minister. The Pierre Mauroy stadium also hosted matches of the 2015 European Basketball Championships and rugby test matches.
This week-end’s Davis Cup Final will be played on a hard-court with a capacity of 27500 spectators. The Stade Pierre Mauroy, the traditional venue of the Ligue 1 football matches of Lille with a seat capacity of 50000 spectators for football matches, will be reduced to 27000 spectators for the Davis Cup final. The Final between France and Belgium will be played on an Indoor hard-court.
The Pierre Mauroy venue set a new attendance record in a Davis Cup semifinal last September. No less than 18148 fans attended the decisive match, where Jo-Wilfried Tsonga clinched the spot in the final for France against Spain. More than 47000 fans attended the whole weekend of the semifinal.
A record-breaking 27448 fans watched the decisive match of the 2014 Final, where Roger Federer clinched the decisive point to earn Switzerland their maiden Davis Cup title. The 2014 final was played under a closed roof.
France will be bidding to win their tenth Davis Cup title in history and the first trophy since 2001, when Nicolas Escude clinched a decisive fifth rubber match against Australia in Melbourne. With a title next weekend French captain Yannick Noah would become the fourth Davis Cup captain to win the Davis Cup for the third time. Noah won the Davis Cup title as a captain of the French team twice in 1991 and 1996.
Belgium will play their third Davis Cup final (the second in the past three years) after finishing runner-up in 1904 and 2015. Two years ago Belgium lost against a strong British team led by Andy and Jamie Murray.
The tennis court will occupy one half of fourth-largest football stadium in France. The Lille Stadium has undergone a major transformation for this weekend’s final with a hard tennis court replacing the football pitch at one end of the ground. The Pierre Mauroy has been split down the middle between the two sports, as one half of the football pitch remains intac,t, while the other is converted into a tennis court. The French stadium has a retractable roof, but the intention for the 2017 Davis Cup Finali s to play outdoors.
Four of the past seven Davis Cup finals were decided by the fifth Sunday match. France will play in front of the home spectators, but Belgian players are expected to receive a strong support from their fans, who are going to make the short trip to the Northern French city, which is not far from the Belgian border.
France starts as the favourite team, but Belgium has built a strong reputation in this event and cannot be understimated. Their best player David Goffin finished runner-up in last week’s ATP Finals and won 15 of his the last 16 singles rubber matches he has played at this event. He lost only to Andy Murray in the 2015 Final and a 19-3 win-loss record in the Davis Cup singles matches.
“It would be really nice to win the year with a Davis Cup title. It’s such a nice event, really important for us for Belgium. It would be incredible to go back home with the trophy, but we are not the favourite team. We have almost nothing to lose. We are in France, the stadium will be against us so we have to give everything for the last event of the year. The Pierre Mauroy is one of the best venues we have ever played in. It’s an unbelievabale stadium and the court is very nice. I think all the players are looking forward to playing in such a nice stadium. We really like the Davis Cup, we really like playing all the ties and want to go all the way. We are looking forward to playing in the final and we are very excited to do that”, said Goffin.
