Spain will have to play one of the 12 qualifying heats on March 4 and 5 of next year to try to be in the third edition of the Davis Cup Finals, which will feature 16 teams divided into four groups of four. Because the International Tennis Federation (ITF) decided to grant the two invitations reserved for this event to Great Britain and Serbia, who had already received them to compete this year. The announcement was made officially during the draw ceremony for those playoffs at the Madrid Arena, which It resulted in the national team facing Romania on Spanish soil.
In this way, the whole of the Navy, which could not overcome the group stage last Sunday, will have to earn the opportunity to opt for the conquest of the Salad Bowl in the last weeks of next November. with the pressure of having to get a place that this year’s finalists, the Russian Federation and Croatia, have already secured.
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Davis Cup
In any case, the goal is more than achievable, because Romania does not currently have any players in the top-200. In fact, the first tennis player from this country in the ranking and the only professional is the veteran Marius Copil (31 years old), who is 276. Further behind is, in position 327, Filip Cristian Jianu. And to find a third Romanian, you have to go to 450 in which Nicholas David Ionel appears. In doubles, it did have a leading exponent, the 17th in the world, Horia Tecau, 36, but hung up the racket last month in the ATP Finals, in which he teamed up without much success with German Kevin Krawietz. Fernando Verdasco, tournament director, who participated in the draw together with the president of the ITF, David Haggerty, gave his opinion on this crossing: “A priori, I think that Spain is clearly the favorite in that tie playing at home against Romania. For my part, as a manager and as a Spanish player still active, I think it is very important that it is played at home. That is why I am happy, because in theory it is much easier than if we had to go there, which would surely give us a very fast indoor track and it would be more complicated “.
No confirmed headquarters
There is still no venue for next season, although it was leaked a few days ago that at least the semifinal crosses and the final could be played in Abu Dhabi and the group stage in four other cities, depending on the teams competing in the Finals. The announcement was to have taken place this Sunday, but the press conference scheduled to carry it out was suspended on Thursday.