For the third time, the national team is excluded from the group stage. Unlike previous times, it arrived with two top 30 and with better numbers than its rivals. Injuries and the poor form of the players conspired against the ranking.
Chile suffered a severe blow in Zhuhai. For the third time in the last five years, he reached the Davis Cup final. However, as on the other two occasions, did not advance past the group stage nor could he take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves to him. In fact, neither in last year’s edition, nor especially this one, did the rivals show up with their best names. which led the team led by Nicolás Massú to arrive in China with the two highest ranked players in singles (Alejandro Tabilo and Nicolás Jarry, respectively 22nd and 28th).
What the double Olympic champion did not count on was that Jarry would not recover from the vestibular neuritis which he suffers from and which affect his balance and coordination. To this day, and despite optimistic forecasts, it is still not known when he will feel one hundred percent again. Obviously, a factor that cannot be controlled and that has considerably reduced the Creole possibilities.
“I knew Nico’s whole recovery process, I had the opportunity to be with him at the Paris Olympics and I was able to see everything he had been through, I was able to see him play at the US Open. Lots of conversations with him. I had a very clear communication with him and he told me that to this day he still doesn’t feel ready to play, but that he is improving. “It’s day by day and if you feel better, that’s good” Massú had said during the week.
Jarry was only able to reappear in doubles on the last day of competition against Slovakia. And after this match, he let off steam. “Tennis is a very tough sport mentally and at this level you have to be at your best. What I suffer, what I live is something very special. It is difficult to accept, where nobody really knows what is happening. I was very affected by the fact that they told me that I would be fine for the US Open and it dragged on. ” he confessed.
Along the same lines, he was very candid in revealing how much this situation affected him.”It was a very hard emotional blow, after all the effort I put into it over the past three months. . It is a difficult process of acceptance, where I worked to get out and thanks to the whole team, to all the effort that the players put in, to all the confidence of the technical staff to accept my situation and give me the time I needed, I managed to have a good state to move forward, leave everything, and it happened in the best possible way because we finished at the top, “he thanked.
Garin’s controversial dismissal
Given this, Christian Garin was in charge of entering the field against the American Reilly Opelka. Gago, despite the defeat, left good feelings and seemed like a safe card to face Germany. But again, Something happened that was not expected and that significantly changed what the coach had planned for the crucial duel against the Germans.
“In a conversation I had with Christian, very early in the morning and in the warm-up, he was at 70% and maybe not in the best condition to play, and obviously that affects an athlete. And if you don’t feel one hundred percent prepared, it’s difficult, it was hot until 10 in the morning and I had to make the decision for someone who was one hundred percent ready and could come in the best way,” he continued.
The situation did not leave Massú very happy, beyond the public support he gave to Garin. The biggest complication was that it left him with little room to maneuver. Tomás Barrios, his replacement, woke up knowing he would only play doubles, so the change of plan also added some uncertainty that ended up being reflected in the result.
However, from this situation there was a very direct conversation between the Vampiro and Gago, which the tennis player himself revealed after beating Norbert Gombos in his last presentation. “I’m going to fight to get back there. Nico will help me. I had a very good conversation two days ago. I understood the way, what I have to do. Having the game I had today definitely helps me a lot and gives me the confidence to get back on track and win games,” he explained.
“We talked about it with Nico Massú. He will help me develop a plan to return to the elite, to be at the top. . I have been working very well again for the last two days. Today is the third day of competition. It is good to have a victory like this after how difficult it has been. Difficult things have happened, this sport is very tough in every way, mentally or physically, you get a little careless and what happened to me happens. ” he added.
Regarding the role of the captain in his new structure, he provided several insights: “He won’t be my coach, but he’ll help me put everything together. I trust him a lot and one problem I’ve had recently has been trusting my loved ones. . Already with the conversation I had, it helped me. Obviously, I have it as a reference. It will help me build a good work team and in the coming days I will tell you my next steps. I need to pull myself together, have goals. It’s been a while since I noticed on the court that I’m lost physically, in tennis too, without a set schedule. I’ve been sick three times this year. I need to get back on my feet and start from scratch “.
In this sense, Garin confirmed the departure of Gonzalo Lama, who last week presented his resignation – on good terms – after almost seven months on the job. two ATP semi-finals and also very irregular moments, such as those described by the former junior champion of Roland Garros. The professional relationship had begun to deteriorate before the North American tour after a series of disagreements.
Tabilo’s irregularity
Added to this is the irregular moment of Alejandro Tabilo, who has not managed to capture all the good things he did on the circuit playing for Chile. Even though he was able to show a good part of his repertoire in the match against the talented Brandon Nakashima, there again the details to close the match weighed. It got worse against the German Yannick Hanfmann, because there too, he was not able to impose his hierarchy and his best ranking.
Against Slovakia the situation was even more dramatic. He fell in three sets against Jozef Kovalik (114th), showing serious doubts in his game and also a certain nervousness. The best Chilean tennis player of the season extended his streak without a victory in the Davis Cup final, Well, in last year’s edition in Bologna he couldn’t maintain his best ranking and fell to Canadian Alexis Galarneau.
There is some concern in the team, because he was not seen as qualified at all as happened for example in the series against Peru, where he was the hero of the ranking. He will now travel to Berlin to participate for the first time in the glamorous Laver Cup, where he will join the Rest of the World team, led by John McEnroe.
Hoping for a better scenario next year, Chile will now have to wait for the Davis Cup rankings to be updated to find out whether they will be seeded in the 2025 Qualifiers. and thus begin the return to the elite of world tennis.
Source: Latercera
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
