Davis Cup Braces for End of an Era

France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with his captain, Yannick Noah. France will face Croatia this weekend in the Davis Cup final. Francois Lo Presti/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Final or funeral? Opinions diverge as France and Croatia meet this week for the Davis Cup title in the northern French city Lille.

It will mark the end of another too-lengthy tennis season but, more poignantly, it also will mark the end of an era for the men’s team event that began in Boston in 1900.

That first final, played in trousers and whites at the original site of the Longwood Cricket Club, matched the United States against Britain over three days, with a best-of-five-sets format. The Americans, whose team…