Between September 15 and 17 (two days of your choice), Argentina will receive the Europeans with the mission of revalidating their place in the 2024 Qualifiers. The lack of a weight figure in the rival and the national local invite to expect a favorable result. The Lithuanians have the best card to Ricardas Berankis32 years old and 193 in the singles ranking, while the best doubles player is Edas Butvilas, world number 958. However, the danger of those led by Guillermo Coria drinks in a different circumstance.
In recent times, and especially in the last series against Finland, played in Espoo, It was difficult for the Argentine team to form a true team, beyond the rival and the surface. This invites a long debate on the philosophy of vernacular tennis, whose comfort zone was always brick dust. Today the circuits mutated into a generality of intermediate or fast courts, very distant from the traditional local clay.
Last weekend Argentina lost 3-1 to Finland, led by a young Emil Ruusuvuori and on a fast but playable surface compared to those available to Slovakia in 2005 or Sweden in 2007. Last weekend’s series was marked by the absences of diego schwartzmanthe best national singlist, and Horace ZeballosN°1 albiceleste in doubles.
Precisely, both were protagonists of various internships in Bologna, venue for the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals in 2022. On that occasion, with the debut of Francisco Cerundolo and the bad streak that dragged Sebastian Baez On the ATP Tour, Argentina found it impossible to win a single: they lost in all the singles matches against Sweden (the rival to beat comfortably, as they believed within the team), Italy and Croatia, and only obtained two points in doubles .
Coria’s figure was weakened. During 2022 and 2023, Argentina lost seven consecutive individual points, a streak that Cerúndolo stopped against the Finn Otto Virtanen. In the same period, the national cast accumulates four series in which it was defeated, a mark that has not been repeated since 1970.
The albiceleste team seems to have entered, once again, a phase of intimate discontent that so many times conspired with the desire for glory. Not even the names that starred in the highest moment of national tennis could give continuity to what was proposed a few years ago by Daniel Orsanic (especially in 2015 and 2016, the season in which Argentina settled its thorniest debt).
The final of Roland Garros 2004, in which Gaston Gaudio defeated his archenemy Coria, marked a milestone in the history of rackets in our country. Two talents as marked as dissimilar settled an unprecedented title. Fifteen years later he showed them far from the role of coaches but close to the captain’s chair. However, they did not live up to what the captaincy demanded.
The “Cat” did not travel, he delegated a lot to his sub-captain Gustavo Marcaccio and maintained a limited dialogue with the players. Coria relied too much on Martín García and Leonardo Mayer, her subordinates, and on the coaches of each tennis player. The lack of management in the dressing room, then, quickly became evident and everything detonated in Bologna.
The Orsanic era, abruptly ended in 2018 due to past feuds (especially with Gaudio, who was sure to be the captain in 2014 when the then Director of Development was finally elected), represents the only oasis in the Argentine history of the Davis Cup: The team was prioritized over the names. The result was obtaining the Salad Bowl on that historic November 27, 2016.
Precisely, five years ago, when the current leadership of the Argentine Tennis Association took office at the Darling Tennis Club in San Telmo, they made sure that Gaudio’s presence also meant a commercial link, particularly with the powerful Qatari capitals. Financial support never came. A few months later, the ITF announced its intention to change the format of the Davis Cup following a proposal by the Kosmos Group lead by Gerard Piqué.
At this time when Argentina squandered its chances and only reached the quarterfinals of the 2019 Finals, in Madrid, the great sporting and economic opportunity offered by the change in format, approved by the AAT as a result of financial seduction, was not taken advantage of. . As the saying goes, the train only passes once.
Behind the scenes, the different actors agreed that the “Cat” would be in the captaincy for two years, and then he would be replaced by the “Wizard” for an identical period. After these two experiences, in the entity on Maipú street they no longer think of a member of La Legión –which today governs Argentine tennis- to lead the team in the future. The determination is that the position be occupied by someone with experience and with a low profile.
The series against Lithuania will be, barring untimely acts, the last for Coria. “They will be protected because we will not miss a single detail”, said the captain in the run-up to the 2022 Finals, at the Tenis Club Argentino. The former number 3 in the world will leave his position in a weak position and with the possibility of relegation, today improved after what the draw destined.
Argentina will celebrate 100 years of Davis Cup competition in June, a history always marked by inmates, stardom and egos sustained by individualist glory. Currently, the two national teams, the men’s and the women’s Billie Jean King Cup, are embroiled in intimate conflicts that affect sports performance. This time, no leader with sports authority traveled with the delegation, in contrast to the message that they want to give: the Argentine tennis team.
September, a crucial month as it happened in the last seasons. From the relegation of 2017 after winning the Salad Bowl to the hope of 2023 to materialize permanence and fight for a place in the Finals in 2024. There will be no need to think about next year; First, the revalidation of the elite position. But before, even, the resolution of internal issues and that the team is a whole and not just a sum of parts.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
