The Davis Cup and the Blues, it's a long story made of great moments, disillusions, improbable matches, and victories. A passion, almost centenary, woven from the saga of the "Musketeers" to the epics of the band to Noah, who lives his last hours.

To evoke the history between France and the Davis Cup inevitably puts on the table the subject of its disappearance will say some, or its radical mutation according to others.

"The end of the Davis Cup. How sad. They sold the soul of a historical trial. Sorry Mister Davis, " wrote Blue captain Yannick Noah about the new version that will see the light next season.

Read too. France - Croatia: the final in figures

No more traveling anywhere in the world and touring France during a four-episode serial ... Place a tournament on a week in November in Madrid. Except that for Noah, this event in its current format is inseparable from its history, and that of French tennis.

After the coronation at Roland Garros in 1983, it was the Davis Cup that made him live his greatest sporting emotions. The final won in 1991 in Lyon, during a long weekend with high dramaturgical intensity, would not have had the same flavor in the future format worn by the ITF.

Before Olympique de Marseille won the Champions League, as Zidane, Deschamps and others did not raise the World Cup, handballers did not start their success story, Captain Noah and his friends Henri Leconte and Guy Forget had written one of the most memorable chapters in the history of French sport.

An event apart

All the ingredients for heroic success came together. On one side, a player returned from nowhere, Leconte, in a state of grace, associated with Forget, who had just achieved his best season. On the other side of the net, the American selection deemed unbeatable, led by two of the best players in history, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

Read too. Nicolas Mahut: "This moment, I've been waiting for 30 years"

The tricolor triumph, celebrated by dancing Saga Africa on the court of Gerland, made it possible to reconnect with the "Musketeers", winners six times in a row of Silver Salad Bowl in the years 1920-30. It is also to welcome the United States that the stadium of Roland Garros was created in 1928 ...

The 1996 successes in Malmö after a decisive final duel where Arnaud Boetsch saved three match points against Nicklas Kulti and the exploit made on the turf of Melbourne in 2001, this time with Forget on the chair, no have kept that interest alive for the Davis Cup which no longer excites the best today.

A club which the Blues have not been part of for some time. Their interest in the Davis Cup, however, has never weakened. A third coronation under the Noah era in Lille in 2017 against Belgium has come to devote part of this generation of "neo-musketeers" promised to the silver salad bowl for many years. One more victory that reinforced these almost indestructible ties.

This is also why French tennis in its vast majority rejected the reform. As if the Davis Cup was a separate event in France, despite its erosion.

The Bleus have in any case offered a funeral first class with a final home for the last game of the Blues in the current format. The dream of a victory to seal the story is almost no more ...