This is called the magic of the Davis Cup. A result more than abracadabrantesque, unreal. This Saturday, on the clay court of Buenos Aires, the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, 15th player in the world, lost in two dry sets against a Belarusian junior without ATP classification. And for good reason ! At 18, Daniil Ostapenkov has never been fielded in any match on the lowest professional circuit (Futures). For any experience among the “grown-ups”, he had already played a Davis Cup match last year but was outclassed by the German Dominik Koepfer (6-0, 6-2).
Currently 63rd in the world for juniors, this young fellow managed to lose one set less against Schwartzman than Rafael Nadal at the last Roland-Garros. And beyond an amazing level of play compared to his CV, he also showed a certain marrow since he missed three balls of 6-4, 5-0 before seeing Schwartzman nibble his delay in the point to get a breakout ball at 3-5. But the kid was able to close the deal and win one of the craziest victories in Davis Cup history. His odds, before the match, at bookmakers, exceeded 100 to one …
This weekend’s Davis Cup matches will designate the teams that will compete next year to try to reach the 2022 final phase, knowing that the sixteen participants in the 2021 final phase, which will take place from November 25 to December 5 (in Turin, Innsbruck and Madrid), are already known: Australia, Austria, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Sweden, United States, Spain, Canada, Great Britain, Russia, Serbia and France.
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