STARNBERG, November 18, 2025

Ten-time Davis Cup champions France will take on neighbours Belgium for the 10th time in the competition in the first quarterfinal tie at the 2025 Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna on Tuesday.

France have reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 2018 while Belgium are in the last 8 for the first time since 2017, when they eventually fell to France in the final.

“We started building confidence as a team first of all in February already, beating Brazil, which is a great team, at home,” said Arthur Rinderknech. “Then we went and beat Croatia away there in September, with this exact same team. We were able to build some confidence. We’ll try to bring it this week and do our best to take one match at a time and go the furthest we can.”

They got way too into it… Wait for the second pose

Photo roulette, with Belgium #DavisCup pic.twitter.com/u2yL7yEnks

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 17, 2025

Belgium’s Raphael Collignon stated: “What I did in Australia was great. I gained a lot of experience about Davis Cup, winning my first matches there. So I’ll try to bring this experience here. I know a little bit more now about the competition, what it is to play for my country. So I will try to bring this tomorrow and fight for every ball and let’s see.”

Two-time defending champions Italy will face Austria on Wednesday in the other quarterfinal tie in the top half of the draw, while both ties in the bottom half (Spain v Czechia and Argentina v Germany) will take place on Thursday.

“We have been very warmly welcomed here,” Austria’s Davis Cup captain Jürgen Melzer said. “It’s a great venue, amazing event, especially for us. We don’t participate every year in great events. For us it’s an honor to be here. All in all, it’s just talk now. Wednesday counts. We try to be as ready as possible for Wednesday, then we see if we can have an upset here.”

The schedule for the Final 8 is out! pic.twitter.com/vFg8uHhdlE

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 19, 2025