The final round of Davis Cup Qualifiers delivered tons of emotions over the weekend, with four exciting ties settled in decisive singles and major upsets suffered by the top favorites on their home soils. The clash between USA and Czechia was definitely the hit one with two star-packed lineups. The Americans were obviously favorites in Delray Beach, however Jakub Mensik and Jiri Lehecka gave their best to earn the advance into November's finals after a great display of form in an extremely difficult away campaign. The other significant upset happened in Sydney, where Australia led by Alex De Minaur got surprised by the Belgians, who were on the front foot after probably the craziest match of the men's top level season won by Raphael Collignon in unbelievably unusual circumstances. Spain was the only home representative out of all 7 encounters who secured the victory, although being on the verge of getting eliminated in the fourth match. Here is the breakdown of what happened during the weekend.
Czechs surprise in the hit of the qualifiers
The momentum swung from one side to another in Delray Beach as the home representatives were down in the scoreline until the opening match between Frances Tiafoe and Jiri Lehecka. The world number 20 dominated his opponent. He gave Tiafoe no chances with just 7 pressure points on serve and no break points faced which ended up with 6-3 6-2 and the first point for Czechia. Taylor Fritz had to step up to level the score by winning 6-4 6-3 over Jakub Mensik. Things started to look brighter for the Americans who expectedly won the doubles to get the lead by 2-1, but the singles matches on Saturday were the turnover made by the Czechs. Tiafoe showed another miserable performance, getting beaten by Jakub Mensik by 1-6 4-6. The world number 29 managed to produce just one break point in both matches against Mensik and Lehecka, getting no breaks and losing both matches in relatively quick straight sets. All came down to the battle between Fritz and Lehecka. The Czech grew into the MVP of the weekend in Delray Beach, defeating the world number 5 in three sets. It was a great serving fest with 13 aces scored by each player. Lehecka came back from being down an early break to win by 6-4 3-6 6-4. Producing 44 pressure points against such a great server as Fritz was an extraordinary performance, same as 17 break points created. Converting just 3 of those was enough to clinch the victory for the whole team in a decisive set of the decisive match. It's a successful revenge for Czechia after losing to USA in the semifinals of the mixed United Cup competition in January.
Collignon seals the upset with the most insane match of the season
The Aussies were strong favorites with top star Alex De Minaur determined to advance his nation to the finals, after the good run of form displayed in the American swing. However, the world number 8 surprisingly lost to Raphael Collignon in the opening match, which drastically swung the pre-match predictions, as De Minaur's 2 points were taken almost for granted. Collignon was rated as a pre-match underdog with an odd of 8.68. The match had a really unusual course of events, as the Belgian delivered an upset despite 12 double faults, and most importantly - facing 26 break points (!) and 77 pressure points (!) on serve. These could be extraordinary numbers even in a long Grand Slam five-setter. Collignon somehow miraculously grabbed the sluggish first set, where he faced break points in each of 6 service games, winning by 7-5. The 12th game was a really mad one with 7 deuces, 4 break points for De Minaur and 4 set points for Collignon - the latest occurred to be the decisive one. The Belgian managed to get relief just in his 10th service game of the match which was the first one without break points and pressure points (even though the second set was almost already settled for the Aussie). The third set started with another rollercoaster game, held by Collignon after 11 deuces. After surviving the storm, the pre-match outsider gained the decisive break in the 8th game to win it all by 7-5 3-6 6-3. That was a huge upset, but also possibly the most ridiculous and unusual match in the whole 2025 men's top level.
Things got worse for the hosts after a straight sets victory by Zizou Bergs over Jordan Thompson by 7-6(4) 6-4. The Aussies started their comeback by winning the competitive doubles match by 6-7(7) 6-3 6-4, followed by the redemption win of De Minaur against Bergs by 6-2 7-5. The fate of this tie was resolved in the last match between Collignon and Aleksandar Vukic who replaced the initially nominated Thompson. That was a much better serving performance by the world number 91, who scored 13 aces to 8 double faults this time. Despite losing the first set in a tiebreak, he was on the front foot in the rest of the match, winning by 6-7(5) 6-3 6-3. The Belgian showed the ability to play entertaining thrillers and pull off significant upsets which had its sample in the US Open when he performed an amazing comeback against Casper Ruud to deliver one of the biggest surprises of the whole tournament. He was surely the main actor of the epic weekend in Sydney.
Spain's miraculous comeback
The emotions were all over the place that weekend with another exciting tie being held in Marbella where Spain got to be the only host who qualified and did it after being on the verge on Sunday. Holger Rune was the featured player there, being the hope of his team to get points against a well-balanced pack of Spanish clay courters who lacked their top names in the squad. Rune got the job done on day one, defeating Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets. Same did Elmer Moller who proved to be a good clay courter at the challenger level. The Dane came back from a set down, upsetting Jaume Munar by 2-6 6-1 6-4. Spain opened their account in Sunday's doubles, but everything was in the hands of Holger Rune who played against Pedro Martinez. The latter stunned the favorite in the first set by 6-1 and followed it with an early break in the second set to lead by 4-2. Rune finally clicked into gear with some proper tennis, winning 4 games in a row to force a third set. He gained a break in the 8th game there, serving for the match and for the advance of his team. He was 5-3 40-30 up, but failed to close the match, got broken there and lost the tiebreak to Martinez who made his team survive with a score of 6-1 4-6 7-6(3). The fate of this tie came down to the encounter between Carreno Busta and Moller. Experience came out on top with a routine victory by 6-2 6-3 which completed the almost miraculous comeback initially from 0-2 in matches and from the critical match point.
Austria prevails without the stars
Hungary hosted another tight battle in this round, getting defeated by Austria in the decisive match. All the play apart from the decider was very close and full of ups and downs. Austria managed to get the away victory without their highest ranked player, as Filip Misolic got replaced in the lineup by the world number 173 - Lukas Neumayer. Jurij Rodionov opened the account for Austria, winning over Fabian Marozsan by 6-2 6-7(5) 7-5. Rodionov could have finished the job earlier, but failed to close the match while being up 4-2 in the second set and 3-0 in the tiebreak. The match could have turned over as Marozsan was the first one to break in the third set, but the Austrian performed another plot twist, coming back from 1-3 to win the first point for his team. Lukas Neumayer paid back the trust, adding another point to the tally, making a significant upset over the home favorite Marton Fucsovics. The momentum swung from one side to another for the whole match and decisive set. Fucsovics made up the gap from 0-3 down to get a chance to serve for the win but failed to do so and the 23-year-old Austrian surprisingly won by 6-3 3-6 7-6(7) after almost 3 hours of play. The Hungarians came back level after the doubles won in two tiebreaks and the successful substitution of Zsombor Piros who replaced Fabian Marozsan to defeat Lukas Neumayer by 7-5 7-6(6). Everything got decided in the fifth match between Fucsovics and Rodionov, but the recent winner of ATP 250 Winston Salem failed to deliver in front of the home crowd as Rodionov secured the win for his team in a surprisingly easy manner with a score of 6-2 6-1. Austria achieved the qualification without having any singles player ranked in the top 150 of ATP rankings on court during that weekend.
Germany, Argentina and France with easy away wins
Germany eliminated Japan in the most straightforward tie of the weekend. Both teams needed to cope without their top players, but Jan Lenard Struff and Yannick Hanfmann rose to the occasion, making a 2-0 advantage after defeating respectively the out-of-form Yoshihito Nisioka and Shintaro Mochizuki on Friday. The great doubles pairing of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz settled the advance by winning 6-3 7-6(4) over Yosuke Watanuki and Takeru Yuzuki to send Germany into November's finals.
The tie between Netherlands and Argentina did not bring any more emotions. The guests ran away with the score with straight sets victories by Tomas Martin Etcheverry over Jesper De Jong by 6-4 6-4 and Francisco Cerundolo over Botic Van De Zandschulp by 7-6(4) 6-1. Andres Molteni and Horacio Zeballos added the decisive third win in another straight sets doubles victory, which made the honorary win by De Jong over Francisco Comesana not relevant for the already settled scoreline.
France was another team to scrape the advance in an away battle, winning over Croatia on indoor clay in Osijek. The mix of 20-year-old Dino Prizmic and veteran Marin Cilic got defeated by Corentin Moutet and Arthur Rinderknech who played instead of initially nominated Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Moutet opened the score by winning over Prizmic in three sets by 6-4 5-7 6-1. Rinderknech extended the lead with a routine victory over Cilic by 6-2 6-4. The luxury doubles pairing of Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic brought back some hope for the Croatians, but Moutet secured the promotion to the finals defeating Cilic by 7-5 6-4.