The mystery was revealed. In the absence of official confirmation, Sebastián Báez, 19th in the ATP ranking, Francisco Cerúndolo (27th), Mariano Navone (29th) and Tomás Etcheverry (31st) will be the singles chosen by Guillermo Coria to represent Argentina in the Olympic Games. They are joined by doubles players Andrés Molteni (19th) and machi González (20th), while among the women those selected will be Nadia Podoroska (62nd) and María Lourdes Carlé (86th). This way, Horacio Zeballos, 2nd in the world and the best doubles player in the history of Argentine tennis, is left off the roster.
Zeballos himself confirmed it in an interview with Tyc Sports. “It was a decision by the captain who is in that position for that purpose, whether in the Davis Cup or the Olympics, and I respect it. I will be sad, of course I will be, but hey… “I wanted to be there, it’s something unique for every athlete,” said the 39-year-old from Mar del Plata.
Although he believes that “he had done well to be in these Games,” he does not seem surprised by the decision of Coria, the team captain. “There was a maximum quota of six players and we knew from the first moment that they were going to take four singles and only one doubles pair, so I couldn’t be there,” he explained.
That determination is, at the very least, questionable. Zeballos, partnered with the Spanish Marcelo Granollers, became the first Argentine doubles player to reach the top of the world ranking last Monday, May 6. Furthermore, he has the brand top nationally with 21 titles, including seven Masters 1000, and played in one US Open final (2019) and two Wimbledon finals (2021 and 2023).
Coria has the task of forming a team with the six players who have the greatest chance of a medal and Zeballos, more than any of those called up, was the one who aroused the greatest enthusiasm. In short, he is the best Argentine tennis player in the world today in their respective disciplines.
In the first instance, it is understandable that they did not want to dismantle the duo of González and Molteni, two top 20 players. “They are leading a couple that has been consolidated for several years, who have been playing together and who have been competing in the Davis Cup. Those are the reasons he has given me,” explained Onion.
However, that explanation does not seem to be sufficient to understand Coria’s determination. So, for what is this? The man from Mar del Plata denied those versions that associate his withdrawal with the different absences in the Davis Cup in recent times: “It’s not that I didn’t want to go, but that at that time I wasn’t ten points enough to be able to compete in such a competition. The stress that one handles there takes the body to an extreme level of demand and that is why I decided to get off.”
He played in the Davis Cup for the last time in 2022, but he could be summoned by Coria for Paris 2024 because in February of this year he was called up for the series against Kazakhstan in Rosario. “In this series we called Zeballos because he needs to play a series to meet the organization’s requirement and be eligible for the Olympic Games,” he had said Magician at the time.
“In this way, the three (González and Molteni) have the same chances of being in Paris. Beyond that, Horacio obviously deserves it because he is 5th in the world, he has been having incredible results, with a Masters final, and they know Machi a lot,” Coria added and opened the door of illusion for Zeballos. Finally, it will not be in Paris 2024.
