Davis Cup tennis: Chile will face Belgium as visitors in the first qualifying round

Nicolas Massú’s team met its rival in the traditional competition.

There was a lot of anticipation for the playoff draw for the final of Davis Cup 2025. The opponent they faced in the playoffs was key to Chile’s attempt to reach the top flight for the fourth time in the last six years. However, Nicolás Massú’s students had the disadvantage that the update of the classification rules removed their possibility of being pre-classified in the draw.

The national team will face Belgium as visitors in the first qualifying round. The team must face the Europeans this weekend on January 27 in search of tickets to an unprecedented second qualifying stage in September. The Netherlands advanced directly to the second round, while Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, USA, Czech Republic, Serbia , Spain, Croatia and France were seeded.

The Davis Cup draw.
The Davis Cup draw.

David Goffin (52nd) is the rival’s best player according to the ATP rankings. They also have in their ranks another top 100, that of Zizou Bergs (71st). Chile must overcome them as an underdog to advance to the next phase. A victory would take the Chilean team to another elimination round. The group round that took place in September was eliminated.

This season, the Chilean team beat Peru 3-2 and advanced to the final in China, where they faced Germany, the United States and Slovakia. They were only able to beat the latter team, which was not enough to qualify for the Final 8.

In interview with The sportsman , Alexandre Tabilo analyzed his season and that of his national teammates. “Everyone has their own internal things or problems. Nico Jarry had an ear disease and it’s not easy. I cannot comment on this. Nor from Christian Garin, who comes from a very difficult season, with a lot of personal things and we don’t know everything that is happening. I myself have experienced hard and strong things this year, which obviously no one knows. This is something we don’t like to talk about and these are things we have to fight internally. Look, for us it’s a very difficult race, very lonely and we have to face it and give 100 percent of what we can,” he said.

The format

The competition will begin the week of January 27, when 26 countries will compete in the first round of the qualifiers, maintaining the traditional home-and-away system that has characterized the Davis Cup in recent years. The 13 victorious nations will advance to the next stage of the tournament.

The big novelty of this new format is the first of the second round of the Qualifiers, which will bring together the 13 winners of the previous phase and a country to be defined. The teams will face off at the end of the week beginning September 8, also in a home-and-away format. The seven qualifiers will advance to the Final 8, which will be joined by Italy, two-time Davis Cup champion and host of the event for the next three years.

The Peninsular team won this season’s final against the Netherlands. First, Matteo Berrettini defeated Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-2. Then Jannik Sinner delivered the final blow with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over Tallon Griekspoor. The Azzurri team took advantage of the world number one’s extraordinary moment to lift the trophy again.

Source: Latercera

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