The Argentine puzzle for the Davis Cup: the departure of Schwartzman, the only two confirmed and the rookies

The need to defend 2022 points to maintain ranking positionthe changes required to go play in Finland in the first week of February and the lack of confidence that some players are going through, make it difficult for the Argentine Davis Cup captain, Guillermo Coria, to confirm five players to play in the Playoffs.

January 6 is the last deadline for the former No. 3 in the world to present the list of five players for the Qualifiers, but since November the doubts were already centered, basically, on two players: Diego Schwartzman and Sebastian Baez. What spread the uncertainty towards who would be in a position to go in his place.

On February 4 and 5, the Argentine tennis team will have a tough commitment against a rival without big names, but one that grows as the Argentine players from that first series are lowered for the Silver Salad Bowl. The novelty, not the surprise, was the information that Diego Schwartzman would not be part of the team. Needing points to sustain his 25th place in the ATP ranking and the urgency to regain confidence in his tennis led him to choose his career over a new Davis Cup call-up.

Although Schwartzman is a player who feels the shirt and who likes to represent Argentina, the pressure that this means for him conspires with the expectations that he generates, and that he generates, when his level drops significantly, as when he lost to the Kazakh Daniil Ostapenkov, a Junior without an ATP ranking. Total, small He played 14 singles in the Davis Cup, of which he won half, he was not taken into account in 2016, he was called up the following year to avoid relegation and his best results were in 2018 and 2019, when he beat Chilean Cristian Garín twice.

The 2022 season did not end well for him. From his presence in the group stage, in Bologna, he ended the year with 6 consecutive defeats (including Davis Cup and Laver Cup), something that surely ended up undermining his confidence and made him leave the top 20 in the world.

Such is the pressure that this competition generates for Diego and that does not allow him to live up to what he shows on the circuit, which he would have evaluated, in September, not play Davis Cup anymore, or at least not for a while.

As to Sebastian Baez, who did play the three series in the group stage in Bologna, both his coaching staff and the Argentine captain, in permanent contact, seek to protect the player’s future and have made it a priority for him to regain confidence rather than exposing him again in this competence. That is why it is likely that they will wait for him until the last moment and have him as a possible bargaining chip, one of those allowed by the ITF, before deregistering him definitively.

It is that, in addition, the Davis Cup date is given in the first week of February, as usual until a few years ago, but this time it entails too many changes for those who participate in the Play Offs and then travel to South America. First of all, you have to understand that regardless of the number of miles that they will earn in their memberships, the players will go from playing outdoors, on concrete, with temperatures over 30°C and high humidity, to go to Espoo, a city located about 60 km west of Helsinki, with temperatures below zero, closed stadium and fast court (Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 February), to then fly to play the Córdoba Open (begins on 6) and play at altitude, with different balls, temperatures close to or above 30°C, again outdoors and on the slowest surface of the circuit: brick dust. Quite a change. They will arrive in the Mediterranean province on Monday or Tuesday and, even if they are allowed to debut on Wednesday, they will have a few hours to adapt to all these changes. That is why, as some say, it was easier for Scaloni to get five players to take penalties in the final against France than for Coria to get the same amount to face Finland.

However, the Argentine captain would already have the consent of the recent winner of the Olimpia de Plata, Francisco Cerundolo, as first singlist and Machi González, for the doubles match. But the man from Tandil lacks his usual companion, since Horace Zeballos he would not be fit to travel either.

Looking at the ranking, the chances that Guillermo Coria debuts new players in this series against Finland It does not appear as difficult to forecast. Pedro Cachín, who had already registered for Bologna, in September, appears as the first to take into account. At 23 years old, Tommy Etcheverry, already established in the Top 100, will have a good chance to be trained, while Federico Coria, although it is not his surface, appears as an alternative. The other one on the radar is Andrés Molteni, to accompany Machi González in the doubles match.

With several questions, it is presumed that the Argentine captain is evaluating announcing only 4 players for January 6 and, later, having the possibility of adding the fifth and making any last-minute changes, if necessary.

Guillermo Coria is a captain who likes to manage, who stands up for the players, even in the worst moments, and who tries to get things out by consensus and in agreement with the coaches. For this reason, he is in permanent contact with them to evaluate, together, the possibilities of making calls that do not end up leaving injuries.

Argentina begins its participation in the Davis Cup again in a city below zero, as it did in Stockholm 2010 (it got to -17°C), Bamberg 2012 (-22°C) and Gdansk 2016 (-7°C). In all culminated in victory.

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