Belgium reach last four of Davis Cup, Federer to be inducted into Hall of Fame

Belgium reached the semi-finals of the Davis Cup after winning both singles matches against France in Bologna, where fans have been denied star power following injured Carlos Alcaraz’s late withdrawal.

Raphael Collignon and Zizou Bergs came through respective singles clashes against Corentin Moutet and Arthur Rinderknech to set up a potential clash in the last four with holders and hosts Italy. Collignon came back from a set down to beat world number 35 Moutet 2-6, 7-5, 7-5, while Bergs saw off Rinderknech, France’s highest ranked player at 29 in the world, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).

The two wins for Belgium mean that the scheduled doubles match featuring Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen against Benjamin Bonzi and Pierre-Hugues Herbert will not be played.

Italy will be favoured to face Belgium in the semi-finals ahead of Wednesday’s match against Austria in front of a passionate crowd in northern Italy. The Azzurri will be without stars Jannik Sinner -- recent winner of the ATP Finals -- and Lorenzo Musetti, who were key to the 2023 and 2024 Davis Cup triumphs for the Mediterranean nation.

Both players sit in the top 10 of the men’s single rankings and their absence makes Italy’s match with Austria more difficult to call.

There was more bad news for the tournament as world number one Alcaraz also pulled out of the tournament on Wednesday morning with a hamstring injury suffered against Sinner in their ATP Finals showdown on Sunday night.

The six-time Grand Slam champion said in the aftermath of that defeat that his hamstring hadn’t affected him, even though it was strapped up during a medical time out.

But he has dropped out of the tournament two days before Spain’s quarter-final with Czech Republic, leaving the beleaguered event without the hoped-for stardust.

The highest ranked player at the Davis Cup finals is former Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, ranked three in the world.

But the German, whose country faces Argentina on Thursday, recently blasted the current format, calling it “an exhibition tournament”.

He wasn’t the only one to criticise the tournament, with Sinner saying during the ATP Finals that he “never unfortunately played the Davis Cup, the real Davis Cup”, and suggested each edition be played over two years.

Ross Hutchins, the head of the International Tennis Federation which organises the Davis Cup, insisted that the absences of three headline players were “three specific cases” and not a sign of the tournament being snubbed by the sport’s stars.

Hutchins cited Musetti saying that the imminent birth of his second child played a part in his decision, but the world number eight said last week that the physical and emotional stress of a long season was the main reason for his withdrawal.

Sinner dropped out in order to get an extra week of close-season rest after completing a complicated campaign by retaining the ATP Finals.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) in an induction celebration set for August 2026 in Newport, Rhode Island, the ITHF said on Wednesday.

Federer won 20 Grand Slams, the first male player to reach the benchmark, and clinched 103 career titles before retiring in 2022.

He held the world number one ranking for a record 237 weeks straight between 2004 and 2008.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and to stand alongside so many of the game’s great champions... to be recognized in this way by the sport and by my peers is deeply humbling,” Federer said in a statement shared by the ITHF.

The Swiss held the top spot in the ATP rankings for 310 weeks during his career, and had long rivalries with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two others in the “big three” of men’s tennis at the time.

“Throughout my career, I’ve always valued the history of tennis and the example set by those who came before me... I look forward to visiting Newport next August to celebrate this special moment with the tennis community,” the 44-year-old added.

Agencies