Finland lost to Belgium in the final tournament qualifier of the Davis Cup national team tennis competition with a match win of 2-3.
Otto Virtanen lost in the decisive final match Zizou Bergsille 4–6, 0–6. Belgium advanced to the finals of the top 16 countries in the autumn. Finland, for its part, will fight for its first-place place in the Davis Cup world block next autumn.
On Friday, Belgium’s number one man David Goffinin Virtanen, who still challenged me strongly, was the underdog throughout the match against Bergs, 22, who was ranked 163rd on the world list.
Virtanen’s own list ranking is 405th. Bergs did not leave opportunities for his Finnish challenger with his own pass, as the Belgian won as much as 87 percent (27/31) of his own first pass.
A great four-handed win lifted the mood
Finland took the lead 2–1 in the national match on Saturday with a sweet doubles victory in Espoo. In the event of a 4-5 loss in the final round, Finland settled two Belgian match balls in Heliövaara’s pass. The match was settled in a playoff by Goffin’s double foul.
– There was everything in this match: feeling, level and drama. Absolutely an amazing match, one of the finest moments of my career. There is no such feeling on the ATP tour, the national matches are completely unique, Heliövaara said.
Belgium eventually won the last two doubles and sealed their winnings with them. Emil Rose Mountain bent over to face the number one players To David Goffin 4–6, 2–6. Rose Mountain defeated Goffin (ATP-68) a couple of weeks ago in an ATP tournament in Doha.
– It was completely different from Goff than a few weeks ago in Doha. He moved insanely well and made few mistakes. With incredible precision, he hit and played the whole game intact. I left everything on the field, didn’t get caught, Ruusuvuori praised his opponent in the Tennis Association’s press release.
Finland tried for the fourth time to reach the highest level of the Davis Cup – the final tournament of 16 teams. The last time Finland was in a similar situation was in 2002, when the Netherlands was stronger.