Davis Cup: 30 years after the beginning of the famous decade of tennis | Argentina team were injured and ostracized

Argentina has a history in the centenary Davis Cup. Since this first series he played against Switzerland, in the 4-1 defeat in Geneva, he has accumulated endless years of illusion, bitterness, hope, joy and sadness, a varied cocktail that ended in 2016, when the team led by captain Daniel Orsanic paid off the eternal debt and became world champions.

In this trip nestles a host of stories through which Argentina, power on the tennis map since the appearance of Guillermo Vilas In the early 1970s, he hadn’t been able to achieve the goal much earlier. One of the darkest stages was the one that took place after the Vilas-Clerc era and before the emergence of La Legión: the famous decade of Argentine tennis.

Several environmental actors claim that the debacle began on the weekend of September 25, 1992, in 3-2 loss to Denmark in Aarhus, the series that condemned the descent into the American zone, although the collapse had originated much earlier: on October 2, 1991, exactly 30 years ago.

That day, in London, the world group draw for the 1992 Davis Cup took place and Argentina, who was supposed to be seeded number seven, was injured and stripped of their prequalification. Luck in the ballroom was abysmal: the first rival of 92 would be nothing less than the United States as a visitor, the worst possible option.

“Davis, they hurt us”, underlined the magazine The graphic of October 8, 1991, in a publication in which he explained bluntly: “Nonsense from the International Tennis Federation, which ranked Australia and the Netherlands as seed ahead of Argentina, despite the fact that our country has better ranked players, and this is what must be taken into account according to section B of article 9 of the competition. The AAT protest was refuted by the FIT with few solid arguments, such as to consider subjectively that the progress of the Dutch deserves to be rewarded “.

The ITF’s decision was arbitrary. With the classification of this moment of Alberto Mancini, Guillermo Pérez Roldán and Martín Jaite, Argentina had 109 against 111 of the Netherlands. Based on this calculation, he should have been the seventh seed but was replaced by Australia and the Netherlands, who They sent Francisco Mastelli’s team to the cruelty of the bolillero in a draw in which there was no presence of Argentine leaders. “They put us to sleep, ”any Creole would say.

“On the day of the draw, as soon as we learned of the crazy result, I called Brian Tobin – successor to the FIT presidency of Frenchman Philippe Chatrier – to complain about the irregularity committed”, t -he declares. Martín Rosenbaum, then president of the Davis Cup committee of the Argentine Tennis Association, in dialogue with The graphic. And explained: “All the excuses they gave were irrelevant. In Australia’s case, it built on its legitimate tennis tradition. But in the case of the Netherlands, he first told me that they had considered the very good performance of 5-0 against Mexico and then he relied on the advancement of several players on the men’s circuit. . Here, the regulations were clearly violated. Only that the FIT stick to the fact that paragraph B of article 9 says that ‘also’ the averages of the three best players will be taken into account … This “also” gives them a margin of doubt. “

Argentina, in fact, he had to travel to the United States to face an impossible first round. The series, from January 31 to February 2, 1992, showed a resounding 5-0 in favor of the local at the Mauna Lani Racquet Club in Hawaii. Mancini, Javier Frana, Christian Miniussi and Jaite, in their last series with Argentina, they could not put up resistance to the power of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe and Rick Leach. The defeat forced the Mastelli team to play this reclassification which determined, in September, the relegation against Denmark. The two ITF beneficiary countries fared better than Argentina: Australia won 4-1 when visiting Yugoslavia and The Netherlands lost 4-1 to Switzerland but retained the category against Uruguay and detained in the world group for 14 consecutive years – he lost his reclassification in favor of the Czech Republic in 2006-.

The fall in Aarhus, caused by the manipulated raffle and the catastrophic passage through Hawaii, marked the start of an endless journey through ostracism: no less than nine consecutive years in the continental zone. During this period, there were three missed opportunities for promotion: 1-4 against Hungary in Budapest (1993), 2-3 against Mexico in Mexico City (1996) and 2-3 against Slovakia in Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis (1998). In the middle, Argentina wandered without the possibility of climbing and even had to play in order not to descend into the American zone II, the third category, in 1997. This time they lost in the first round against Chile and, despite leaders thought they didn’t have to play until the following year, the Albiceleste team marched on the ledge: it lost the first reclassification against Ecuador in the BALTC and had to face Venezuela, also in Buenos Aires, not to sink further. Hernán Gumy, Lucas Arnold, Luis Lobo and Pablo Albano saved the prestige.

The torture, the suffering, almost an unnecessary Stations of the Cross for a power like Argentina, ended on September 23, 2001: on that day, the series of reclassification of the World Group ended with 5-0 against the Republic of Belarus in Cordoba lawn tennis. The performers of the long-awaited return to the elite were Franco Squillari, Luis Lobo, Guillermo Cañas and Gastón Gaudio, led by Captain Franco Davin. More than four thousand people vibrated in the heart of the country with the birth of the Legion and the end of the famous decade.