A part of the Argentine delegation for the first tie of the 2026 Davis Cup has departed for South Korea for the series scheduled for February 7-8. According to the Argentine News Agency, the first trip included players Guido Andreozzi (30th in doubles) and Juan Pablo Ficovich (161st), along with team captain Javier Fran and his collaborator Eduardo Schwank. Federico Gómez (192nd) is already in the area, having just played a tournament in Vietnam. Thiago Tirante (103rd) is in Bahrain, and Marco Trungelliti (130th) will travel on his own. Facing an atypical Davis Cup tie with an extensive journey that will leave five Argentine players unable to compete or qualify for the South American tour, the national delegation embarked on the trip to South Korea. The team selection was a major issue for Fran. As he commented, in a situation that caused some anger within the Argentine tennis world, most of the country's top players declined to participate because they have many points to defend in the South American tour or can play without spending as much money. Among the top players, the only one who said he did not receive a call was Sebastián Báez (36th), who was the finalist in the ATP event in Auckland, New Zealand. However, Fran clarified that he contacted Báez's coach but chose not to involve him, as he will be defending around 700 points in the coming weeks, and not participating in tournaments like the Argentina Open or the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro would seriously worsen his ranking position. Thus, after contacting all Argentines in the top 250, Fran finalized the roster. The only subsequent withdrawal was that of Andrés Molteni (25th in doubles), whose injury opened the door for Ficovich. In addition to the Korean team, another major rival the Argentines will have to overcome is the journey itself. The trip will take two days: starting with a flight to São Paulo, Brazil, the Argentine team will then spend 16 hours on another plane heading to the capital of Ethiopia. From there, they will fly for 11 hours to Seoul, the South Korean capital, and then take a final domestic flight to Busan. Argentina will face Korea in the city of Busan on February 7-8, with matches and times to be confirmed, on a hard indoor court, against a rival that has only three players in the top 500 in singles: Sanhui Shin (358th), Hyeon Chung (418th), and Soon Woo Kwon (486th).
