The team led by Nicolás Massú risk playing the group stage of the final again. The key is scheduled for the first week of February and Viña del Mar has the advantage of hosting it.
With victory over Peru in September, the team led by Nicolás Massú were just one step away from playing the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals again, where the 16 best teams on the planet compete for the Silver Salad Bowl. His rival to achieve this will be Kazakhstan and the key will be played in February in Chile. Viña del Mar has the advantage of being the place.
A news confirmed this morning after the draw made by the ITF in the middle of the Malaga final. There are 24 teams that will play in the playoffs, commonly referred to as “Qualifiers”. Besides the key between Chile and Kazakhstan, high-caliber matches like Croatia v Austria, Germany v Switzerland and Finland v Argentina stand out.
All these teams will play on February 3 and 5 to secure a place in the group stage of the Davis Cup, which will be held in September 2023 in different European cities. Chile have not reached this instance since 2019, so securing a place would be a tremendous achievement for the national team, which, contrary to what was experienced in Peru a few months ago, They hope to arrive with a full squad for the series with Kazakhstan . In Lima, for example, neither Christian Garin nor Tomás Barrios could be there, both injured during the matches.
The choice of the place was determined by drawing lots, because Chile and Kazakhstan had never met for the Davis Cup, which made our country the winner. In this direction Viña del Mar, in particular Club La Unión, emerges as the favorite to receive the series mainly after the good feelings the place left behind when they hosted the series against Slovakia in March this year.
A city at sea level and a clay court, like that of the La Unión club, should give the advantage to the national team, since the Kazakhs have players who do not show their best game in these conditions. In reality, Alexander Bublik, 37th in the world and big star of the European country, he starred in several postcards of discomfort playing on brick dust. “I hate the earth, I hate this surface. I hope not to walk on it in 10 years” he commented this year while competing in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000. The other lone player is Mikhail Kukushkin, former top 40 and current 222 in the world.
Chile, for its part, should have a team made up of Christian Garin (85°), Alejandro Tabilo (86°), Nicolás Jarry (141°) and (Tomás Barrios (230°) . Fifth place, on the other hand, should be disputed between Gonzalo Lama (270°), Matías Soto (535°), Diego Fernández (701°) and Daniel Nuñez (980°).
Finally, the date is not a minor detail, as it will allow local players to prepare well for the South American tour of the ATP 250 tournaments, which begins only a few days after the Davis Cup series. The Kazakhs, meanwhile, will have to travel after the Australian Open and in the middle of the cement European tour.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
