2024-09-19 16:40:02
The Argentine team of the Davis Cup comes from starring in a strong shake-up at the AO Arena in Manchester, the venue where it overcame, against several predictions, the group stage of the Finals and managed to qualify for the quarter-finals, the first of the defining instances which will take place from November 19 to 24, at the José María Martín Carpena Sports Palace in Málagaon indoor hard court.
This Thursday, just a few days after moving on to the final week, the group of Guillermo Coria He found out who his rival will be in the instance of the eight best in the world: none other than Italy, the defending champion which is estimated to have number one in the ranking Jannik Sinner.
The draw was held at the headquarters of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) In London, Argentina was the winner, who qualified second in Group D behind Canada, will face Italy instead of the United Statesthe team that was promoted as the second alternative.
Although he has until next Monday 23rd to announce those called up for Malaga, Captain Coria has already announced that he will repeat the same team that achieved qualificationwith the defeat against Canada and the victories against Great Britain and Finland: the singles Sebastian Baez, Francisco Cerúndolo and Tomas Etcheverry, in addition to the doubles players Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.
The verdict, which will be reconfirmed with the official list before the Paris Masters 1000 – the week of October 28 -, will have completely buried the dispute with the world number one doubles player Horacio Zeballoswho missed the Olympic Games due to Coria’s decision and made it clear that there is no good personal relationship -“I find it hard to respect your word.”-
Coria, for now, analyzed what the series against Italy will be like: “We are going to face the world number 1 and Matteo Berrettini, who came back very well after an injury. In addition they have a double with two who have played together for a long time.”
And he went deeper, with hope on the surface: “It’s going to be a rematch of Bologna 2022 and finds us in a great moment, with a more solid team, with more experience. Manchester gave us a boost of confidence. We look forward to seeing you all in Malaga and we are going for more.”
What Italy has
Italy is the current Davis Cup champion, the world’s top team tennis competition. Without the presence of number one Sinner, he comes from winning the three series in the group stage which they played at home at the Unipol Arena in Bologna. They won all three Group A qualifiers by 2-1: Brazil, Belgium and the Netherlands. The figure of the squad led by Filippo Volandri It was Matteo Berrettinicurrently 43rd in the ranking but with the level that he showed when He became number 6 and reached the final of Wimbledon.
The other players called up for the group stage were Flavio Cobolli (32nd) and Mateo Arnaldi (33rd), since the Italian captain did not have the country’s number two in his ranks either Lorenzo Musetti (19th). Without the two most prominent singles players, the power was also supported by a strong double: Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, 12th and 9th in the pair ranking respectively. It is estimated, however, that Both Sinner and Musetti will have the intention of playing in the final instance to fight for the title in Malaga.
The probable crossing
The series with the current format are carried out with three games: single 2 against single 2, single 1 against single 1 and, to close, the double. In this sense, one can glimpse what the probable crossings will be like.
If Coria’s strategy is maintained, with Cerúndolo and Etcheverry as starting singles playersand with speculation that Italy will have the best available -all tied to the development of the circuit during the next months and possible movements in the ranking-, the pairing would be the following: Etcheverry against Musetti, Cerúndolo against Sinner and the González-Molteni pair against Vavassori-Bolelli.
The other keys
The other matches that will take place in the quarter-finals, officially called the Final 8, will be the following: United States vs. Australia -The winner will face the winner of Argentina vs. Italy in the semi-finals-, Canada vs. Germany and Netherlands vs. Spain.
The history
Italy and Argentina faced each other a total of five times in the history of the Davis Cup. Was three wins for the Azzurri and two for the Albiceleste. The last match was in September 2022, in the group stage in Bologna, on a hard indoor surface: Italy won 2-1, with Berrettini and Sinner winning over Báez and Cerúndoloand the Argentine victory in the doubles, with Zeballos and González over Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.
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