2023-09-01 16:47:00
Francisco Cerúndolo, Sebastián Báez, Tomás Etcheverry and the doubles players Andrés Molteni and Máximo González will be the players that the captain of the Argentine team of Davis cupGuillermo Coria, will announce in the next few hours for the series against Lithuania, on the 16th and 17th of this month at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club, for the World Group I playoffs. The winner of the match will get a place in the 2024 Qualifiers and , the loser, will be relegated to the regional zone.
After last February’s 3-1 defeat against Finland, in Espoo, by the Qualifiers, the Argentine team was relieved with the draw made a few days later, since Lithuania is a rival that is currently not up to par with the Albiceleste. The country belonging to the European Union has the experienced Ricardas Berankis (33 years old, 254th in the ranking) as the highest reference.
Tomás Etcheverry will debut in the Argentine Davis Cup teamKirsty Wigglesworth – AP
Coria, whose link as captain will end at the end of the year, contacted the tennis players and their coaching staff in New York, during the US Open, to evaluate the appointments. Although Coria’s initial intention was to maintain the formation that he lost this year with Finland as a visitor, taking into account the “fidelity” he found in those who agreed to travel to Europe in that uncomfortable week, he finally leaned towards designating the Argentine tennis player of the moment. , Báez, and betting on the debut of Etcheverry from La Plata, of great growth in the current season. In Finland, the albiceleste formation included Cerúndolo, Facundo Bagnis and Pedro Cachin, plus the doubles of Molteni and González.
Francisco Cerúndolo, the best ranked Argentine Davis Cup teamJohn Minchillo – AP
In this way, to receive the Lithuanians, Argentina will present a strong formation with Báez at the best moment of his career: after obtaining the titles of Córdoba, Kitzbühel and Winston-Salem, he qualified for the third round of the US Open (This Saturday he will face Daniil Medvedev). The growth of Báez, at 22 years old, and the ability of Fran Cerúndolo, 20th in the ranking and champion last June on the English grass of Eastbourne, something that an Argentine tennis player had not achieved for 28 years on that surface, exalts Argentina as a wide favorite on the brick dust of the BALTC.
Sebastián Báez, recent champion in Kitzbühel and Winston-Salem, will return to the Davis national teamAL BELLO – GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA
For the doubles point, Coria will bet on Molteni and González, a couple with brilliant current events, winner of five titles (the last one, the Cincinnati Masters 1000) and third on the road to the Masters. The team will form with the best available, with the exception of Cachin, who was champion this year at the Swiss ATP in Gstaad and is in the best moment of his career. The tennis player born in Bell Ville already knows that he will not be against the Lithuanians, as reported telam. For that reason he planned his schedule including two Challengers during the Davis Cup weeks, in Seville and Szczecin (Poland).
After the frustrating series against Finland, it was learned that Coria would continue as captain until this series in September and that he would then say goodbye to his role. What’s more: Agustín Calleri and Mariano Zabaleta, president and vice president of the Argentine Tennis Association, respectively, did not accompany the team to Europe, but they met and thought of other names -not linked to the Legion as players- for the 2024 captaincy. However, Coria would like to continue in office.
Andrés Molteni and Machi González, with a brilliant season, will play Davis againMATTHEW STOCKMAN – GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA
Lithuania will announce next week the formation it will use in Buenos Aires, but it will be led by Berankis, whose best individual ranking was 50th in 2016, precisely the season in which Argentina won the Salad Bowl for the first and only time. The second single player of the Lithuanians would be Vilias Gaubas (18 years old, 508th in the world), while the formation Edas Butvilas (19 years old, 531st) would compete. The captain is Sarunas Kulnys. Last February, Lithuania beat Pakistan 4-0 at home.
The experienced Ricardas Berankis, a reference for the Lithuanian Davis Cup teamAaron Chown – PA Wire
In this context of sporting relief, Argentina is preparing to celebrate with a victory a special celebration that the AAT will prepare for the hundredth anniversary of the team’s debut in Davis (1923, 1-4 vs. Switzerland, in Geneva). In the National Tennis Cathedral there will be a space where spectators can enjoy immersive experiences and artistic interventions, to interact with the past and glimpse the future at the hands of the new breed of tennis players.
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