The Argentine tennis team will go this weekend for a ticket to the
2024 Davis Cup
Finals against
Kazakhstan
, in a historic duel.
For the first time, the Albiceleste team will play a series of this competition in
Rosario
.
The
Jockey Club
of that city will host the matches that will be played on Saturday and Sunday and that will qualify the winner to the group stage in September.
And it will be very special for
Guillermo Coria
.
"It's going to be a historic moment, I hope I don't get too excited. I want to thank the club, the city and the province and the
AAT
, because they gave us this great opportunity to realize the dream of coming to play Davis here. It's exciting that the The city where my wife was born, where my children were born and where I have lived for years, hosts an event like this," commented the
Magician
during the presentation of the duel, which took place this Tuesday at the Rosario Hippodrome.
Also present at the conference were
Mariano Zavaleta
, vice president of the AAT,
Pablo Javkin
, mayor of Rosario,
Maximiliano Pullaro
, governor of Santa Fe, and authorities of the
Santa Fe Tennis Federation
.
Coria is originally from Rufino, but adopted Rosario as his second home.
And she assured that bringing Davis to that city is one more step towards the goal of the Argentine Association to make tennis a more federal sport.
"Many of us who are in the AAT are from the interior. We grew up knowing the sacrifices that every father, every mother, every family makes, selling raffles in the little towns for which children can travel. May the city and the province have this event today It is an award that they deserved. Everything we are experiencing is very nice," commented the Argentine captain.
"That the city and the province have this event today is an award they deserved," said Coria.
Photo JUAN JOSE GARCIA
Argentina, champion of the tournament in 2016 and which in September earned a place in the Qualifiers by sweeping
Lithuania
4-0 in the first round of World Group I at the
Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis
, starts as a great favorite, due to its status as local, but also by the proper names of the team.
Francisco Cerúndolo
, 22nd in the world,
Sebastián Báez
, 25th, and
Tomás Etcheverry
, 28th, will be the three singles players.
The man from La Plata is the one who arrives at the best moment, since he has just had a great
Australian Open
, in which he played at a high level, he reached the third round with wins against
Andy Murray
and
Gael Monfils
and fell in that instance against
Novak Djokovic
.
The doubles team formed by
Máximo González
and
Andrés Molteni
will also be very strong , who share the 13th place in the ranking in that specialty and have been established as a couple for a couple of seasons.
Machi
was originally going to play with
Horacio Zeballos
, 11th in the standings, who wanted to play the series to meet the requirements to be eligible for the
Olympic Games
.
However, the man from Mar del Plata had been suffering from a shoulder injury since the preseason, which began to bother him more in Melbourne, and
Molto
came in to replace him.
The cradle of the flag deserved a Davis Cup 🇦🇷
🩵🤍 There's less and less to go back to cheering for the cutest shirt.
It's getting closer to playing for the first time in Rosario
🇦🇷🆚🇰🇿
🗓️ February 3-4
🏟️ Jockey Club de Rosario #VamosArgentina🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/4gwnYH833D
— Argentine Tennis Association (@AATenis) January 26, 2024
Kazakhstan, without its number 1
On the other side will be a
Kazakhstan
that suffered a significant loss at the last minute.
Alexander Bublik
, 27th in the ATP and best individual player on the Asian team, will not be present in Rosario, despite the fact that he was nominated by captain
Yuriy
Schukin
and that, until this Tuesday at noon, his status had not been officially confirmed. low.
But after being eliminated in the first round of the Oceanic Grand Slam in just three sets by the Indian
Sumit Nagal
(137th), he decided not to play Davis and sign up for the
ATP 250 in Montpellier
, where he is the second favorite in the singles draw ( will debut in the second round) and will also compete in the doubles with his compatriot
Alexander Shevchenko
(they will start this Wednesday).
According to unofficial sources, Bublik wants to add points to better position himself in the ranking and boost his chances of qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
His place for the clash with Argentina will be taken by
Dmitry Popko
, 338th in the ranking.
Argentina will repeat the team that beat Lithuania in September in the BALTC.
AAT Press Photo / Omar Rasjido
The other members of the Kazakh team - who began training on Sunday at Jockey de Rosario - will be
Denis Yevseyev
(176th in singles),
Beibit Zhukayev
(189th),
Timofei Skatov
(278th) and
Aleksandr Nedovyesov
(48th in doubles ).
"The boys arrived from Australia, they adapted to the change in schedule and last week they started playing on clay. Tomorrow we are going to start working on Jockey, which is turning out spectacular. We are going to train hard on Wednesday and Thursday, a lot hours. And Friday is calmer, because on Saturday we compete," said Coria.
Everything you need to know about the crash
The series will start on Saturday at 11 with two singles duels, which will pit the first singles player of one team against the second of the other, and vice versa (the order will be drawn on Friday).
On Sunday, starting at 11:00, the doubles will be played and then the match between the first rackets of each country.
And, if necessary, the crossover between singles 2. All matches will be defined as the best of three sets and will be televised by
TyC Sports
.
The 3,500 tickets available for the weekend are already sold out.
The record against the Kazakhs has two antecedents, with one victory per side.
In 2011, in Parque Roca, Argentina won 5 to 0 with the victories in singles by
Juan Mónaco
and
Juan Martín Del Potro
, and in doubles by
Juan Ignacio Chela
and
Eduardo Schwank
.
With the series already defined, Monaco and Chela sealed the ideal score in that series corresponding to the quarterfinals of the World Group.
💥 READY!
💥
#DavisCup Qualifiers
🗓️ February 1-4 pic.twitter.com/oskUNiyWkM
— Davis Cup (@CopaDavis) January 29, 2024
The other duel was in 2017, in Astana, and Kazakhstan won 3 to 1. The only Albiceleste point was achieved by
Diego Schwartzman
.
On that occasion, captain
Daniel Orsanic
had also called up
Guido Pella
and doubles players González and Molteni, who made their Davis debut.
The series meant Argentina's relegation after 16 uninterrupted years at the highest level.
"Argentina deserves to be in the final and we have the players to get there. We believe we are very good for this series and we are doing everything possible to win it," commented Coria.
The clash that will be played in Rosario will be one of the 12 of the Qualifiers that will be played this weekend.
The others will be Canada-South Korea, Serbia-Slovakia, Croatia-Belgium, Hungary-Germany, Netherlands-Switzerland, Czech Republic-Israel, Ukraine-United States, Finland-Portugal, Taiwan-France, Sweden-Brazil and Chile- Peru.
The winners of those series will enter the group stage, which will take place from September 10 to 15 in four venues yet to be designated.
In that instance ,
Italy
, current champion,
Australia
, finalist in 2023, and
Spain
and
Great Britain
, special guests, are already waiting.
The eight best from that stage will play in the playoffs in Malaga in November, to define the champion of this edition.