Davis Cup: France secures Taiwan in the play-offs, thanks to Luca Van Assche, 19, who celebrated his first selection

Adrian Mannarino a offert à la France son deuxième point. MAXPPP – Agn Foto/IPA Sport/ipa-agency.

Les Bleus n'ont plus qu'à remporter le double pour terrasser les faibles taïwanais.   

The French team perfectly negotiated the first part of the Davis Cup play-off match between it and the Taiwan team, winning both first singles Saturdays in Taipei to lead 2 to 0.

The first singles pitted Yu Hsiou Hsu (230th) against the young Frenchman Luca Van Assche (68th) who, for his very first selection with the French team at the age of 19, was ;is imposed while in control 6-4, 6-4.

"There was quite a bit of emotion and tension. Playing for the French team was a dream for me", explained on the microphone of BeIn Sports the Frenchman, called at the last moment to replace Ugo Humbert, package for personal reasons.

"The main thing is to give everything, to enjoy and take pleasure too, because'we' ;trains every day to play matches like this", he added.

Mannarino finishes the job

The experienced Adrian Mannarino, N.1 tricolor, confirmed this good start by then beating Tung-Lin Wu (238th), 6-3, 7-5. "It's not easy either, Mannarino said. I may have put a little less intensity in the second set, but I managed to win the point today and it's really the most important", declared Mannarino, broken from the start in each set before tightening the game and regaining the upper hand each time.

"It's a perfect day, said Blues captain Paul-Henri Mathieu. These are matches which are always traps because we start as clear favorites on paper but in the Davis Cup the ranking no longer means anything".

After these two victories, the double could already prove decisive. It is scheduled for Sunday at 6 a.m. Paris, before the other two singles if necessary.