Tennis betting tips: Davis Cup preview and best bets

Tennis betting tips: Davis Cup Finals

1pt Germany to win the Davis Cup at 6/1 (General)

1pt Belgium to beat France at 7/4 (bet365, William Hill)

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Davis Cup Finals

• Bologna, Italy (indoor hard)

The 2025 season has reached its final week with eight nations gathering in Bologna for the ‘World Cup of Tennis’.

Plenty of players are running on fumes at this time of year and fatigue is almost certainly behind ATP Finals champion Jannik Sinner’s decision not to play in these Davis Cup Finals, denting hopes of an Italian ‘three-peat’ in the competition.

World number one Carlos Alcaraz does appear for Spain though, with Alex Zverev the other top-10 player in attendance.

It’s a straight knockout format in operation with the quarter-finals being played from Tuesday to Thursday. The semis are on Friday and Saturday with the champions crowned in Sunday’s final.

Each tie is made up of two singles rubbers (the lowest-ranked nominated players meet first), before a potentially decisive doubles.

Conditions in Bologna – staging the Finals for the first time – are expected to be slower than in Turin last week, although probably not too much with a GreenSet surface and Dunlop ATP balls in use again.

Any way, that’s the basics taken care of. Now let’s take a look at the teams competing for the famous ‘salad bowl’ trophy and the quarter-final tie.

• Rankings shown in brackets are singles unless indicated by an asterisk in which case the figures are for doubles.

France v Belgium (Tuesday, 1500 GMT)

Best odds: FRA 11/20; BEL 7/4

• France (best outright odds: 7/1) – Arthur Rinderknech (29), Corentin Moutet (35), Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (59), Benjamin Bonzi (96), Pierre-Hugues Herbert (65*)
• Belgium (20/1) – Zizou Bergs (43), Raphael Collignon (85), Alexander Blockx (116), Sander Gille (49*), Joran Vliegen (66*)

France will start favourites for this one but Belgium should not be written off. For the French, Rinderknech made the Shanghai Masters final not so long ago but has faded rather since. He was due to play singles alongside indoor specialist Ugo Humbert but he’s injured so the initially snubbed Corentin Moutet comes into the squad, along with the big-serving Mpetshi Perricard.

Humbert’s injury weakens France and they will be concerned that the Belgian singles players have both been in decent form in recent times. Bergs reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters last month, while Collignon has translated his Challenger Tour form to the main tour, notching wins over top-20 stars Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the past few months.

With Gille and Vliegen an experienced doubles partnership in this competition (they’ve won five of their last seven rubbers), do not rule out the upset in this opening quarter-final.

Italy v Austria (Wednesday, 1500 GMT)

Best odds: ITA 1/12; AUT 7/1

• Italy (13/8) – Flavio Cobolli (22), Lorenzo Sonego (39), Matteo Berrettini (56), Simone Bolelli (13*), Andrea Vavassori (14*)
• Austria (25/1) – Filip Misolic (79), Jurij Rodionov (177), Lukas Neumayer (189), Lucas Miedler (23*), Alexander Erler (43*)

With Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti both absent, holders Italy could be vulnerable this week as they look to complete a hat-trick of titles. However, I’m not convinced Austria are the team who will be taking advantage with their highest-ranked singles player being world number 79 Misolic, while their number two, Sebastian Ofner, isn’t even here.

The Italian back-ups – Cobolli, Sonego and former Wimbledon finalist Berrettini – should have enough quality to see Italy into the semis and even if there’s a slip-up, the hosts have a strong doubles team, one which has just competed at the ATP Finals.

Spain v Czechia (Thursday, 0900 GMT)

Best odds: SPA 4/9; CZE 7/4

• Spain (2/1) – Carlos Alcaraz (1), Jaume Munar (36), Pablo Carreno Busta (88), Pedro Martinez (95), Marcel Granollers (6*)
• Czechia (9/1) – Jiri Lehecka (17), Jakub Mensik (19), Tomas Machac (32), Vit Kopriva (102), Adam Pavlasek (53*)

Alcaraz heads straight to Bologna from the ATP Finals which is good news for Spain, who will need him, although captain David Ferrer would have been worried seeing him receiving treatment for what looked like a thigh or hamstring strain in Sunday’s final. Their number two, top-20 star Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, isn’t here so they look vulnerable in that position, especially against a Czechia side with plenty of depth.

They are the only team in Bologna with two top-20 singles players and also have the world number 32, Machac, at their disposal. It’s easy to see this tie boiling down to the doubles where the experience of doubles specialist Marcel Granollers could prove crucial. Alcaraz may also be needed for doubles duty – far from ideal after his long week in Turin. The Czechs will fancy their chances.

Argentina v Germany (Thursday, 1600 GMT)

Best odds: ARG 7/4; GER 4/9

• Argentina (18/1) – Francisco Cerundolo (21), Tomas Martin Etcheverry (60), Francisco Comesana (61), Horacio Zeballos (5*), Andres Molteni (25*)
• Germany (6/1) – Alexander Zverev (3), Jan-Lennard Struff (83), Yannick Hanfmann (104), Kevin Krawietz (11=*), Tim Puetz (11=*)

For those who watched Zverev struggle badly against Felix Auger-Aliassime at the ATP Finals on Friday night, Germany may not appeal much here. But Zverev wasn’t that poor all week in Turin – he actually gave eventual champion Sinner a good test – and he says he’s here to help some of his older team-mates win.

That’s not out of the question. Although Germany arguably look weak in the second-singles spot, Struff arrives in good form having won a Challenger title in Lyon at the weekend, while they have a specialist doubles team in Puetz and Krawietz, who also qualified for those ATP Finals in Turin.

Argentina probably aren’t best placed to take advantage of any cracks, either. As always with this event, they are being forced to play on a surface which doesn’t favour them – how they must long for clay to be under their feet. Cerundolo is no slouch on hardcourts these days though so if he can upset a below-par Zverev, they could spring a surprise.

Outright verdict

This year’s Davis Cup Finals have a very open feel to them.

Defending champions Italy look much weaker than last season without their two top-10-ranked stars, although their depth still makes them worthy of respect.

They also have home advantage and appear to be on the weaker side of the draw, so it’s understandable why they are favourites. However, for me, they are too short.

The star player in Bologna is Carlos Alcaraz but the rest of his Spanish team doesn’t look that strong. He may well be needed for doubles duty too and given he was troubled by a muscle strain in Sunday’s final in Turin, backing Spain at no bigger than 2/1 carries plenty of risk.

I’m happy to take them on in the bottom half of the draw and will do so by backing GERMANY.

They boast the only other top-10 player in attendance in Alex Zverev and while he suffered a disappointing group-stage exit at the ATP Finals, he actually played well in two of his three matches.

Some will have seen his critical comments of the competition’s format – like many, he pines for the days of home-and-away ties and a fervent atmosphere for every rubber – but it’s also interesting to hear exactly why he has decided to play for his nation’s Davis Cup team for the first time in almost three years.

“I'll play it now because my team-mates and my German colleagues really asked me to play because they feel like everybody's getting older,” he said before leaving Turin. “Struffy (Jan-Lennard Struff) doesn't have many opportunities anymore. The doubles guys don't have many opportunities anymore.”

Struff is in good form having won a Challenger Tour title indoors at the weekend, while those “doubles guys” are Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz, who are one of the best teams on the tour – they just played in the elite Turin field.

In short, this is a team with potential and they could offer some value at 6/1.

As for the quarter-final ties, the one I like most to produce an upset is the first.

France aren’t as strong as they might be and BELGIUM’s players have been showing some good form of late.

It’s 10 years since they were surprise finalists (losing to Great Britain) when current captain Steve Darcis was playing.

They are a passionate bunch and with both Zizou Bergs and Raphael Collignon playing well, they look worth a small bet to cause a shock.

Posted at 1615 GMT on 17/11/25

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