The Argentine Tennis team suffered a major setback during their visit to Asia and was eliminated in the first round of the 2026 Davis Cup Qualifiers. The national team lost 3-2 to South Korea in a series played on a fast surface in the city of Busan and will now have to play to avoid relegation in September. According to the Argentine News Agency, the Sunday's session had begun with a glimmer of hope thanks to the victory in doubles, but the consecutive defeats of the singles players sealed the fate of the team captained by Javier Frana. The Doubles Illusion. The debut duo of Guido Andreozzi and Federico Gómez (players 94 and 95 in the history of the Selection) put Argentina 2-1 up. Result: They defeated Ji Sung Nam and Uising Park 6-3 and 7-5 in one hour and 23 minutes. The analysis: Andreozzi and Gómez showed solidity and complementation, resolving the first set with authority and recovering from a break in the second to close out the match. The blows in the singles. With the advantage on the scoreboard, Argentina had two chances to close the series, but the locals proved to be stronger. Fourth point: Thiago Tirante (95th ATP) fell to Soon-Woo Kwon (343rd) in three sets: 4-6, 6-4 and 3-6. The platense was up 2-0 in the deciding set, but the Korean won four games in a row to turn the story around. Fifth point: In the decisive duel, Marco Trungelliti (134th) could not overcome Hyeon Chung (392nd), who won 6-4 and 6-3, taking advantage of the effectiveness of his serve and physical freshness to sentence the albiceleste elimination. How the path continues. After this defeat, Argentina falls to Group World I and will have to play a playoff in September to try to return to the Qualifiers in 2027. The risk: If it loses that instance, it will be relegated and will have to row from behind to dream of a return to the elite only in 2028. Possible rivals: Among the potential adversaries are Finland, Switzerland, China, China Taipei, New Zealand, Monaco, Lithuania, Turkey, Poland and Paraguay, in addition to the winners of the still undefined series.
