Five years have passed since the return of Ivo Karlovic was long and Federico Delbonis it collapsed and ended up supporting an avalanche of members of the Albiceleste delegation. The national tennis debt was paid: Argentina was finally the world champion. They were three difficult days in which the defeat was close and there was only room for the epic.
“It ended up being a feat because of how it happened, and winning the Davis Cup like this, with everything against it, down in the score, with him there, it was very nice”, remember Mariano Hood, then National Deputy Captain, in dialogue with Ambit. “He” was Maradona, who since the middle of that week had come to Croatia to encourage “the boys”.
The team that at that time captained Daniel Orsanic and what had to Juan Martin del Potro As an ace of spades – Leonardo Mayer and Guido Pella completed it – he arrived at Arena Zagreb to play the fourth and last series of the season, all away. On the first day, the Tandilense beat Karlovic, and Delbonis fell in five sets to Marin Cilic, local number one.
For “Delpo” it was not going to be easy. It was the year of his return to the circuit after the surgeries on his wrist, although he was going through a formidable moment after obtaining silver in Rio 2016 and defeating the British Andy Murray, the best in the world at that time, in the semifinal against Great Britain . But he had to play twice with Mayer (victory for Cilic and Ivan Dodig in three sets) and then for the best Croatian tennis player.
If being a champion is the exact moment when happiness explodes, what better way to do it than with warrior epic and divine joy. Del Potro turned a match millimeters away from being a loss to Cilic (he played all three days for the first time in his career) and then Delbonis was the main actor in the most magical moment in Argentine tennis. La Ensaladera was traveling to Buenos Aires.
Operative Maradona: the idol and his stay in Croatia
Maradona arrived in the Croatian capital in the middle of the week, but the national team did not spot him until the Davis Cup final got underway. From his box, far from the field but magnetic because of his presence, he laughed, celebrated, got angry and shouted. In that 2016, Diego Gutierrez He was the vice president of the AAT and the head of the national delegation, and he was the one who managed the entrance of the ex-footballer to the Zagreb Arena.
“I didn’t have tickets, but Maradona didn’t need them. I had two options: either I would give him my official box next to the Croatian leaders or I would send him with the Argentine fans, with all the risk that that entailed. I managed to get him the box he finally went to and explained that he was going to be calm there, he could watch it, celebrate, he had catering, everything. ‘Thank you brother, you are a phenomenon’, he replied. He understood that in the same way that he understood that we preserved the players so as not to alter their reality “Gutiérrez describes this medium.
The former executive director of the AAT adds that the Argentine team was “shielded” from outside factors so that they do not lose concentration. This is what they commented to Diez, who never put down the orders as a good connoisseur of the sports code: “’I come to add,’ he told us and we did everything to make it that way, because the figure of Maradona generated a lot. He respected us a lot, he always had a good vibe. Around there he did not see the players but he met with the captains. He respected Orsanic very much. It ended up being a plus, because we made it part of everything we lived through “.
The summit with God and the title so delayed
Diego went through all the moods in his comfortable location. He was far in space but close in spirit. He suffered, but never stopped believing. When Croatia was just one point from glory, the invitation arrived. Diego wanted to receive the Albiceleste squad and something was up to.
“Guys, Argentina has more eggs than anyone. Tomorrow they will win and they will turn it around “He launched laconic, as if everything was already planned and he, a sports divinity, knew the end result. “He invited us on Saturday night and I remember that meeting a lot, we spent an hour talking, it was a very nice time,” recalls Hood.
The ex-double player says that “Pelusa” stayed at the same hotel as the national delegation, but never went to training or the dressing room. “He always respected our privacy and didn’t even come to the places where we had dinner. It was all very tight, because we always handled ourselves that way and it did us very well. We were a very reserved group “, explains the current Delbonis coach, in tune with Gutiérrez.
Saturday night was the time for the meeting. The entire squad and part of the coaching staff wanted to greet him. The surprise came when opening the door: “He received us with pajamas that only he could wear: it was short pants and a shirt, mustard color, with rounds. A phenomenon, he had an incredible charisma “, reports, between laughs, Hood.
Anyone would think, with precise justification, that the time elapsed between tennis talks. But I would be wrong. Maradona was watching a program on RAI about… Maradona. “I had it all set up, guys,” the 1986 world champion said jokingly to break the ice. “He remembered the plays and was telling us everything he did,” details the former sub-captain.
“We were in a very complicated sporting situation because we were losing, but he really believed it. He told us that we won, with that way of speaking that he had. Anyone else would have been more pessimistic, but he was convinced “, says Hood, five years after that indelible night that served as a preview of what would happen a few hours later.
The Great Captain lived the last day of the final to the full, like any sporting event he attended to accompany the blue and white flag. TV cameras caught him hugging a teenager who was wearing Boca’s shirt and no one knew who he was. Days later the boy himself said that he had approached the box to take a photo with the idol. At that moment, Del Potro began to turn the game against Cilic. “Now you stay here,” Diego ordered him, always a cabulero.
The rest is written history. “It is true that Maradona was a fan of Argentine athletes, we feel that way. That was not the only time he came to see us, when we lost to Italy – in February 2017 – he encouraged us and told us that nothing was wrong, he did not dramatize. He was always present, not only in the final. Luckily in Zagreb we won and we saw him celebrate ”, argues Hood.
Obtaining the Davis Cup was a liberating event for Argentine tennis. However, the former deputy captain claims that “life goes on” and that he does not think about it all the time. “When someone brings it to mind, I get emotional. The memories come back to me of everything we worked on, what the players competed, what we did as a team. Life is very dynamic, we are very active, so I don’t think that we are world champions “, loose with brittle tone.
Five years ago everything changed. Argentina was finally able to raise the Salad Bowl after hundreds of attempts and as many disappointments. The quartet that conquered Zagreb will go down in history for turning a final that led to the precipice. Delbonis was the visible face of a triumph that was conceived long before, when Orsanic took office and was consolidated with the return of Del Potro and the key points of Mayer and Pella.
Maradona was right.
Source From: Ambito
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