Argentina will face the Czech Republic from Friday for a place in the Davis Cup Finals, which will be divided into two stages: the Group Phase (16 teams) that will be played in September in four different cities, and the best eight will advance to the Final Phase of November, in a single venue. The national cast looks towards both stages.
Coria took over last October, and it is in these days that he manages to formally take command of the team. “I am happy, enjoying it very much. The time was no longer coming, I wanted to get into the hotel with the players and the coaching staff “account in dialogue with Ambit.
Diego Schwartzmann, Sebastian Baez, Federico Coria, Horace Zeballos and Maximo Gonzalez make up the albiceleste campus. The “Wizard” is accompanied by Martín García and, surprisingly, Mayer, one of the heroes of Zagreb in 2016.
“We are three captains, all three on par. We agree on everything, on everything that one thinks we agree”, points out the eldest of the Coria. This Tuesday the “Yacaré” was part of the double training, along with Zeballos, González and the sparring partner Mariano Navone.
“I’ve known Leo since we were 15 years old, we have a great relationship,” says Zeballos, who during a stretch of practice was paired with the man from Corrientes. “He not only contributed tennis things but also sentimental ones. Tomorrow, when we are playing and we are nervous, we can look outside and see people we know who support us, it is essential. He has a lot to contribute considering that he played so many Davis Cup series”he adds.
For the number 5 in the world in the specialty, the series against the Czechs comes at a time of a lot of match accumulation, but that does not stop him: “I was tired, but from the head, playing the Davis game pulls you up emotionally. Today I trained for more than two hours, something I’m not used to on the circuit. I am very happy”.
Once the practice of the double ended on the Guillermo Vilas Central Court, Coria quickly left for one of the adjoining courts where Báez, the team’s debutant, rehearsed. “He is ready, I see him well. He is very professional. He is a very focused person and is well surrounded. He has been showing it with results, with character, with presence and he has already earned respect on the circuit”analyzed the captain about the recent finalist in Santiago de Chile.
During the practice of the Buenos Aires native, Coria was very active marking details, always with the permission of Sebastian Gutierrez, your coach. Báez, attentive and without reproaches, listened to each of the advice of both tutors.
The presence of the private coaches of each tennis player was a practice that had not been observed in the Argentine team for some time. “I think that one has to adapt to the players that one summons and you have to give the coach space, because they are with them 24 hours a day, they know them better than anyone”says the former number 3 in the world.
“I give space, I like to share, and when I see something, I try to talk about it with the coach and we see how we talk to the player to make it positive,” he says in the press box at the central stadium. This year, unlike what happened in 2021, the ITF allows face-to-face interviews, but requires respecting the bubble of players and coaches and requires the protocols already known to all: distance and mask.
Another group climate is perceived in the Argentine Davis Cup team. There is laughter, there is tension and there is also a distribution in the game, each one from the place where they belong. Shortly before the sun goes down in Palermo, the albiceleste cast leaves the fields. End of another day, one less for the series against the Czech Republic.
Source: Ambito
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