The Chilean intern suffered from the ranking for the 2024 Davis Cup final

Chile suffered a lot to beat Peru at the National Stadium and qualify for the Davis Cup final. A weekend of ups and downs, which ended with an explosion of emotions for the national team, led by Nicolás Massú. This is already the third time, since the era of Olympic medalists, that the country is among the 16 best nations in this event. Milestone which can be explained for various reasons.

These are the same protagonists who explained this. Unity, dedication and the ability to overcome bad times stood out. From the resurrection of Jarry to the return of Tabilo through the support of Christian Garin who, even if he did not play a single point, was always present in the team.

For the fourth time in the Massú era, a Davis Cup series was defined at the fifth point. First time locally. A sufficient context for emotions to run high within the Chilean team, to the point that the captain gave one of his most moving speeches on a tennis court. This is precisely where the keys to the exploit were told.

“Congratulate the entire Davis Cup technical team and, above all, the players. Whatever the end result, this is a team. If we hadn’t won today, we would have a family. For 10 years and more, and we will continue much more together,” began by saying the double Olympic medalist, who during his decade at the helm of Chile remains undefeated in home series.

An emblematic character of Chilean tennis, who in no way takes credit for what he has accomplished. “They (the players) are responsible, I try to do my job and it is not very definitive,” he admitted before explaining another factor of this historic step. “We are still fighting. We fight from the first ball to the last, if we win, if we lose. We always fight, because we know that if we have this mentality, we can move forward,” he added.

Nicolás Jarry had a very difficult time on the cement of the renovated Center Court, but his singles victory on Sunday ended up being the key to his dream of qualifying for the Davis Cup final. He had to go out on the field with the score 1-2 and the heavy backpack of having lost to the 438th in the world barely 24 hours before.

“Yesterday was very hard and I had a very bad time last night. This morning (yesterday), knowing that the match was being played in the evening, I tried not to think too much but until the last minute I had doubts. Once I started preparing for the match, I did everything possible to have a good match,” admitted the Chilean after his victory on Sunday. A completely opposite scenario to what we expect before a duel of such importance.

And despite everything, tennis appeared. It was an oxygen tank for the Chilean team, which until that moment was having a very complicated day. 6-2 and 6-4 the score against the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas which allowed to leave the series tied. He stopped the Peruvian momentum and found the prize. Without him, everything would have ended very early for Chile.

The series was extended to the limit in Santiago. The two-way tie on aggregate meant Alejandro Tabilo was tasked with defining Chile’s fate and he did not disappoint. Of course, he had to fight to find his way, because things started very difficult for the national team. 1-5 in 17 minutes caused panic.

And it was after this storm that the sky cleared for the new ATP 250 champion from Auckland. The return was explained by himself during a press conference. “From the start of the second set, I felt that I started to serve much better, much more calmly. We started to find the short, the return, which was something that was difficult for me at first. We started hitting him a little more, with more margin. With Nico (Massu), we understood that this was what we had to do and we moved the match forward,” said the 54th in the world.

The change in the game was evident and Tabilo took a step forward. Key moment in his career, thinking he came in this series as Nicolás Massú’s big bet. His great personal moment forced the captain to move his traditional table and exclude Christian Garin from the matches.

Decision which was far from causing friction within the team. Garin was a constant supporter of his teammates, showing full support for the work of the entire team. In fact, Tabilo admitted that after he was beaten in doubles, it was the same player who recommended him to play the singles final as well.