MADRID, 14 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Argentine team won this Saturday by 3-0 against Finland in Group D of the preliminary phase of the Davis Cup Finals, which has given them a ticket to the Knock-out Phase of this tournament, which will be held from November 19 to 24 in Malaga, where the Italian team will also be present due to the combination of results in Group A.
That Group A, which is being played at the Unipol Arena (Bologna), saw Brazil beat Belgium 2-1. But the Brazilians needed to win all three matches if they wanted to keep their chances of going to that event in Malaga. Although the young João Fonseca defeated Raphael Collignon 6-3, (2)6-7 and 6-3 and then Thiago Monteiro did the same by 4-6, 7-6(5) and 7-5 against Zizou Bergs, the ‘canarinho’ momentum ran out in the doubles.
There, Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen won 6-3, 3-6 and 6-4 against Rafael Matos and Felipe Meligeni, giving the Belgian team the point they needed to stay alive in the group. At the same time, Italy qualified for the Final 8 in Malaga, which will take place at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena.
In Group B, which is being played at the Fuente de San Luis Pavilion (Valencia), the places for the next round of the tournament were already known in advance. However, the French team had the pleasure of coming back (2-1) against the Czech Republic, thanks to the decisive victory of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Arthur Rinderknech in the doubles by 7-6(4) and 7-5 against Jakub Mensik and Adam Pavlasek in a match that lasted an hour and a half.
In Group C, with everything settled, the United States took the lead after beating Germany 2-1 at the Hengqin International Tennis Center (Zhuhai). Both the Americans and the Germans will be in the Final 8, having beaten the teams from Chile and Slovakia on the way.
Finally, in Group D at the AO Arena (Manchester), the Argentine team achieved a 3-0 in its match against Finland. Máximo González and Andrés Molteni closed the overall score with a victory in doubles by (3)6-7, 6-4 and 6-3 against Harri Heliovaara and Patrick Kaukovalta in just over two hours of play.
Before that, Tomás Martín Etcheverry had beaten Eero Vasa 7-6(5) and 6-3 in the first individual duel and Francisco Cerúndolo had beaten Otto Virtanen (4)6-7, 6-1 and 6-0 in the second individual duel. With the last day remaining, the Albicelestes have secured themselves a place among the top two in their group; Canada or Great Britain will be the other companions.