Finland and Argentina’s Davis Cup matches are shown on ‘s channels. You can find more detailed shipping information at the end of the story.
The Finnish tennis players have a chance to make history next weekend. Finland will face Argentina in the Davis Cup in Espoo, and the winner of the match will advance to the Davis Cup final tournament of the 16 best countries in the world.
The Davis Cup game system has changed over the years, but Finland has been in a similar match four times before, where a win would have made it to the top 16. They have all been losses: 1990 to Sweden, 1999 to Italy, 2002 to Holland and last year to Belgium.
Now there is another possibility and a completely realistic one. Argentina is a really tough and traditional tennis country, but Finland is helped by the fact that the draw brought a home match. Argentina at home on a mass field would have been a significantly more difficult opponent. In Espoo, they play on a relatively fast platform in the hall, which suits the Finnish players, but is not the favorite platform of the Argentines.
In addition, Argentina did not come to Finland with their best team. There are currently seven Argentines among the top 100 in the world singles rankings. Number one in the country Diego Schwartzman and the third Sebastian Baez are not included.
Basically, he plays as Finland’s number one player Emil Ruusuvuori (ATP-43) and as the second player Otto Virtanen (ATP-181). In Argentina, the players with the best list positions are Francisco Cerundolo (ATP-31) and Pedro Cachin (ATP-68).
Rosuvuori’s season didn’t get off to the best possible start. In the first two tournaments, there was a loss in the opening match. At the Australian Open, Ruusuvuori won one match and then lost to the sixth ranked player in the world To Andrei Rublev. The background was an unusually long break of a couple of months from matches and a period of a good couple of weeks without a tennis racket in hand.
– The first weeks went well. The first two weeks were difficult, maybe a couple of months break from matches showed in that. There were two good matches at the Australian Open, Ruusuvuori said between practices in Tali.
Rusuvuori emphasized Argentina’s level and knew that there would be no easy opponents.
– I know those who are not here better. I haven’t played an official match against the guys here, but I’ve been training.
Also Finland’s captain Jarkko Nieminen reminded of the extent of Argentina’s level.
– Whoever comes on the field there will be quality players. They may not have the biggest guns, but they don’t have any weaknesses either. Argentina is a stable and consistent team in terms of size and style of play.
Who plays doubles with Heliövaara?
The doubles game is an important part of the national match. This time, the interesting question is what is Finland’s doubles pair. In recent years it has been Harri Heliövaara and Rosuvuori.
Now Patrik Niklas-Salminen has focused solely on doubles and played well. At the beginning of the year, there have been two final places in the challenger tour. Heliövaara, who has risen to the top of the world, is an obvious choice, but now there might be an opportunity to let Ruusuvuori focus on singles.
– To be honest, it hasn’t been decided yet. The situation is clearly different from, for example, last year, when I felt that it was best to play with Ruusuvuori. At the moment, it’s a pretty even choice if I could choose which one I would play with, Heliövaara stated on Tuesday.
– Of course it is possible that Patrik will play. Especially in the last few months, his game has progressed a lot, Jarkko Nieminen said.
Argentina’s doubles specialists are Andres Molteni (doubles ATP-36) and Maximo Gonzalez (doubles ATP-45). Heliövaara is currently tenth in the doubles ranking and Niklas-Salminen is 129th.
– Molteni is a familiar guy. We have played several times and practiced a lot together. Gonzalez is an experienced guy, but not that familiar to me. Both enjoy themselves quite a lot in the backcourt, which suggests exactly that they like slower pitches. Hopefully we can take over the network, on a fast platform it’s usually a winning tactic, Heliövaara thought.
Home knowledge is of great importance
The members of the Finnish team emphasized one after the other the importance of home advantage, which also includes the right to choose the game platform.
– Fortunately, we have the home advantage, which will hopefully give us a big advantage. I was quite happy when I watched the draw, Heliövaara said.
– We are trying to make the most of this. Argentinians can certainly play well on fast platforms, although their best results are on slower platforms. The field has been tuned a little faster. It should be a notch faster than last year, Nieminen said.
Espoo Areena had the European figure skating championships and a concert by the Manowar band on Wednesday. The tennis court was set up and the teams could practice there only on Thursday. The Tennis Association had to apply for an exception, because according to the rules, the playing arena should be allowed to practice three days before the match.
The Davis Cup is a different event in tennis, usually played as individuals. Davis Cup success cannot be directly compared to personal achievements, but the players value it highly.
– Finland has never made it to the final tournament, that would be a wonderful achievement for Finnish tennis. It would certainly be one of the most memorable things that has happened to my career. Team competition often brings more emotion, Heliövaara thought.
– Finland has participated in the Davis Cup for decades, but has never made it this far. That already says a lot. We have made a long and successful journey, it would be nice to get there to measure our level against all the best, captain Nieminen stated.
The initial blocks of the final tournament will be played in four different cities in September. The top eight will advance to the final stage, which will be played in Malaga in November.
Davis Cup match Finland–Argentina in Espoo 4–5 February.
Saturday 4.2. from 5:00 p.m. – two singles games (number one players vs. number two players)
Sunday 5.2. from 1:00 p.m. – doubles and one or two singles (first and second players against each other)
The matches are shown in Areena. Saturday’s broadcast starts at 16:55 and Sunday’s broadcast at 12:55.
Saturday summary on TV2 at 20:30 and Sunday’s summary on TV2 at 20:10.