The top eight countries are battling it out to be the 2025 Davis Cup champions in Bologna, and the First Ashes Test from Perth, which will have a huge bearing on the outcome of the biggest series in world cricket, is happening this Friday.
2025 Davis Cup Final
- Start: Tuesday, 17 November
- Venue: Bologna Friere Exhibition Centre
- Coverage: BBC
- Fun fact: This is the first time the Davis Cup final has been played in Italy for 27 years. The last time was 1998, when Sweden beat Italy 4-1 at the Forum di Assago in Milan to win their second consecutive title.
Betting
Curiously, not many betting companies are currently laying outright odds on the Davis Cup, but ones that do have their odds live at the time of writing make Italy the favourites at 2/1.
That seems a reasonable price for the team that has won the last two editions of it. Two years ago, they beat Australia 2-0 in the best-of-three final in Malaga, Spain, then last year, they went and beat surprise finalists the Netherlands, again by 2-0, and again in Malaga. This time, they have a significant advantage of playing at home on the hard indoor courts at the Bologna Friere Exhibition Centre.
But Italy is not at full strength, far from it. Not only will they be without their best tennis player and five-time Grand Slam champion, Jannik Sinner. They’ll also have to make do without Lorenzo Musetti, who announced that, due to fatigue after the ATP Tour Finals in Turin last week, he wasn’t going to be available for his country in Bologna. They’re still a very good side even without those two, but it’s impossible to ignore the significance of Sinners’ absence, in particular.
Italy are certainly expected to make the semis at least. They play Austria on Wednesday and are just 1.08 to come through, with Austria deemed 7.5 chances.
But first up, it’s a tighter-looking affair between France (1.44) and Belgium (2.6) on Tuesday.
Coincidentally, 1.44 also plays 2.6 with Ladbrokes in both of Thursday’s ties: Germany 1.44 to beat Argentina and Spain 1.44 to beat Czechia.
Summary
We already knew that Janik Sinner wouldn’t be playing in the eight-team showdown this week because he hasn’t played in the Davis Cup at all this year as he looks to manage his workload in a bid to try and win as many Grand Slam titles as possible next year. He’s said he needs an end-of-season break rather than playing one more week of top-class, gruelling tennis.
That’s even more the case given he’s fresh from playing and winning the ATP Tour Finals last week, which included a straight-sets win over his big rival Carlos Alcaraz in the final.
As it happened, Alcaraz was clearly hampered by a hamstring injury in Sunday’s final, but ironically, it’s Alcaraz, and not Sinner, who is preparing himself to play in the Davis Cup this week. Fortunately for this year’s French Open winner, Alcaraz, whose Spanish side only plays on Thursday, he’ll have an extra couple of days to recover.
It’s a situation that has led to both Sinner and Alcaraz calling for the Davis Cup to be staged every two years rather than every year, so the top players can make more room in their calendars for it, rather than, in some cases, players seeing it as an end-of-season nuisance.
We’ll have to wait and see whether they get their wishes, but more to the point, there’s a great week of exciting tennis ahead of us. Matches are played in a best-of-three format with two singles matches played first and a doubles match only if the tie is 1-1 after the singles.
1st Ashes Test – Australia v England
- Start: Friday, 21 November 21 at 02:30
- Venue: Optus Stadium, Perth
- Coverage: Sky Sports Main Event
- Fun fact: Joe Root has scored 13,543 Test match runs during his 158-match career. Only Sachin Tendulkar has scored more runs than him, ever. But despite racking up 39 Test centuries, he’s famously never scored one in Australia across 27 innings. If he does so this Series, he will have ticked the only box that remains unticked in his incredible career.
Betting
Australia are available at 1.76 with Unibet to win the First Test in Perth. That’s a price that has drifted somewhat from about 1.55, due to the confirmed absences of two of their very best fast bowlers in Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, through injury.
Hazlewood has been one of the leading pace bowlers in world cricket for well over a decade, but the absence of Cummins may hurt them even more because, in addition to being their skipper, he’s also a competent batsman at number 8, so they’ll be weaker for his absence on three fronts.
But the bookies are still showing plenty of respect to Australia in making them warm favourites here, with England 2.4 and the draw, always an unlikely prospect in Perth, trading at 13.0.
Run-machine Steve Smith, who will be filling in for Cummins as captain for the First Test at least, is the 4.0 favourite to top score for Australia in the first innings at 4.0, with his regular partner in crime Marnus Labuschagne available at 5.0 and veteran Usman Khawaja at 5.5.
For England, Joe Root, the second-highest runscorer in the history of Test cricket, is the 4.33 favourite to top score for his team in the first digs, while ‘boy wonder ‘Harry Brook is 4.5, and captain Ben Stokes, who often saves his best performances for big Ashes Tests, is 6.75.
One player likely to make an impact in this match is Mitchell Starc. The only one of the famed three-pronged Australia pace attack who will be in action here with Cummins and Hazlewood away, he’ll have more responsibility on his plate than usual, but is just the sort of player to rise to the challenge.
Starc is 3.0 to be his side’s first innings top bowler and 10.0 to be Player of the Match.
Summary
You can tell a lot about how the rest of the Ashes series may go based on what happens here in Perth.
If Australia win the First Test, history tells us it's nigh-on impossible for England to recover from that. Going 1-0 down in Australia leaves you a mountain to climb from a psychological point of view, as well as a sporting one.
But with Cummins and Hazelwood missing, this is a rare opportunity for England to go 1-0 up Down Under and make a mark, at which point it would be Australia under serious pressure.
But if Australia take first blood, that would be a bitter pill for England to swallow. If they can't beat Australia when they’re without two of their best players, then how are England going to beat them when the Aussies are at full strength?
Australia have other weapons they can count on. We’ve mentioned Starc already, and to that list you can add the metronomic line-and-length bowling of Scott Boland, the canny off-spin of Nathan Lyon and a trio of brilliant run scorers in Samith, Labuschagne and the man who was Player of the Series in the Ashes four years ago here in Australia, Travis Head.
This is one that cricket fans all over the world will be staying up for or getting up early for, and it promises to be an absolute cracker.
Betting Tip of the Week: England to beat Australia in the First Test
It’s worth noting that the venue for the First Test isn’t the fortress that the WACA was; the new Optus Stadium, which replaced it as Perth’s international cricket ground, hasn’t seen Australia quite as dominant as they were at the WACA.
This, along with the two absences already mentioned, could open the door to an unlikely and pretty rare England win in the First Test.
They’d probably want to bat first, so the toss will be important, but purely the fact that they can field their best XI here and Australia can’t, could make all the difference. England at 2.4 with Unibet, it is.
