Chile ensured its presence in the tennis elite one more time, as it qualified in the Davis Cup World Group after defeating Kazakhstan. The disputed series were held in the Club Trentino of La Serena between February 4th and 5th.
The game started uphill for the Chilean team coached by the double Olympic medalist Nicolás Massú, due to the fact that in the opening game played on Saturday, the first national racket, Christian Garín (102nd) lost a tough match against Timofey Skatov (129th) by a score of 1-6 and 3-6.
The series tied during the second part because the Pan American champion of mixed doubles, Nicolás Jarry (126th) achieved the best triumphs of his career after beating the best Kazakh singlist, Alexander Bublik (36th) by a double 6-2.
Christian Garin was one of the protagonists of the weekend. (Pictures from: L. Sevilla and Copa Davis)
With one point for each team, the doubles match was important for both teams that wished to be part of the world’s top 18 countries. On one side, Alejandro Tabilo and the Lima 2019 silver medalist, Tomás Barrios, represented Chile. On the other side, Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Andery Golubev represented Kazakhstan, an outstanding duo that was a Roland Garros 2021 finalist. The game ended with a positive score for Chile by 6-4 and 7-5.
The responsibility to close the series was on Garín’s shoulders, who answered in the best way and defeated Bublik by 6-4, 3-6 and 6-3, giving this way the triumph to Chile and the step to the final phase of the Davis Cup.
Tomas Barrios and Alejandro Tabilo were in charge of disputing the doubles. (Pictures from: L. Sevilla and Copa Davis)
Chile will be the only South American representative among the world’s top 18, since Colombia was defeated by Great Britain. On the other hand, Argentina suffered a surprising defeat against Finland.
Thus, the tennis team ‘La Roja’ will be back to the world group after four years of absence and it will have to wait until September to play in a neutral venue that has not been defined yet. This competition considers one phase of six groups with three countries each, where the first of each zone and the best two teams will qualify into the knockout stages, which will be held in November with the objective of crowning the champion of this edition.
THE 18 TEAMS QUALIFIED FOR THE WORLD GROUP
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
SANTIAGO 2023 COMMUNICATIONS
E-mail: comunicaciones@santiago2023.org
Official instagram: @santiago2023oficial
Mascot’s instagram: @fiusantiago2023
Twitter: @santiago2023
Facebook: Santiago2023oficial
Youtube: @Santiago2023oficial
TikTok: @Santiago2023oficial
