A few weeks ago, the International Tennis Federation released the match schedule for Davis Cup World Group I. This new category was going to debut in September last year, but, due to the pandemic, it was finally run for this year. And it was there that two options were established: play in March or in September. In the case of Chile, which is visiting Slovakia, the host chose March 5 and 6 to carry out the series in its capital, Bratislava.
The decision generated the protest of the Chilean Tennis Federation, which is exhausting all instances for the confrontation to be postponed. “We ask to suspend the Davis Cup series. The ITF asked us when we preferred to play and we said in September. Then they asked Slovakia the same question and they said in March. So, I wrote to the ITF telling them why they asked us if they were going to say otherwise in the end. There they answered me that in these cases the preference of the premises weighs ”, reveals to Third Sergio Elías, helmsman of the entity.
The concern of the leader and the team led by Nicolás Massú is related to the rapid spread of Covid-19 in Slovakia. The country, with only 5.4 million inhabitants, has had very high figures in recent days. In fact, on December 31, it presented 6,315 reported cases, almost the same as those presented by Chile in its peak June, with the difference that the European nation has a little more than a third of the population of this country.
Given the situation, the president contacted his Slovak counterpart to request the suspension. “I told the ITF that it seemed impractical and that I was missing the fair play. So, as a last option, I wrote to the president of the Slovak Tennis Federation (Tibor Macko) to explain our concern and asking them to make the possibility of postponing visible, taking into consideration that the proportion of cases with the country’s population is much higher. We are waiting for that response, ”says Elías.
