Davis Cup: Three things we learned from Argentina v. Türkiye and what comes next

The Argentine Davis Cup team beat its Turkish counterpart over the weekend to secure a spot in the competition’s 2027 Finals Qualifiers.

Wins by singles players Francisco Cerúndolo (who played the first and last matches) and Thiago Tirante at the Ruca Che Stadium in Neuquén province earned the Halcones — as the team is affectionately known — a 3-1 victory, while the doubles match went to the Turkish team.

Cerúndolo wrapped up the series with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Mert Alkaya in the first of Sunday’s singles matches, which are only played if required to settle the series.

The team now has to wait until November, when the draw for the first round of the 2027 Finals Qualifiers will take place. The possible rivals are Chile, Croatia, South Korea, Hungary, Brazil, India, Ecuador, Norway, Slovakia, Peru, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Serbia and Monaco.

Argentina would have to play away if it draws against any of the last four.

The victory sends the country to the 2027 Finals Qualifiers, the first stage to reach the year end, winner-takes-all tournament, and guarantees another year away from World Group I, where teams duel with those from the lower tiers for a spot in the elite.

However, it will also leave plenty of food for thought for team captain Javier Frana.

Doubles is a problem, but there’s a stopgap Argentina went into Sunday aiming for a quick and easy win, after Cerúndolo and Tirante steamrolled Türkiye’s singles bets with 6-0, 6-4 and 6-2, 6-4 wins over Yanki Erel and Mert Alkaya, respectively.

However, the final day of the series started on the back foot as Guido Andreozzi and Andrés Molteni were unable to take the chance for a 3-0 win, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Erel and Arda Azkara.

“Not having played many matches together had an impact, but that’s no excuse,” said Andreozzi after the match. “We didn’t play our best out there.”

It’s not the first time the doubles point, which can prove decisive in closely contested series and tough matchups, has been a problem for Argentina, a country that has traditionally had stronger singles than doubles players.

But the fix going into 2027 seems easy: put Horacio Zeballos back in the team.

The former doubles world No. 1 is coming off another solid year with regular playmate Marcel Granollers, in which they won a second consecutive Roland Garros title.

In 2025, he proved valuable, winning points for Argentina against Norway and the Netherlands, and came inches close to sending the Halcones to the Final 8 semis.

At 41, Zeballos isn’t a long-term solution, and Frana will do well to figure out a duo for the future, but the three-time Grand Slam winner is a must for 2027.

Top stars need to feature Looking at top-ranked Argentine Cerúndolo celebrating and pointing to the Argentina tag on the back of his shirt, it’s hard not to wonder where Argentina might have been if its best players had been there to face Korea in February.

At the time, then-95th-ranked Tirante and 115th-ranked Marco Trungelliti had to lead the Halcones push into the second round of the Finals Qualifiers, in a series that proved highly inconvenient for Argentina’s top talent, requiring a 12-hour trip to Busan.

With the draw for the 2027 Finals Qualifiers first round set to go through in November, Argentina will need luck not to require another in-extremis away series, but the push from young stars like Tirante, Juan Manuel Cerúndolo — Francisco’s younger brother — and Román Burruchaga will give Frana a more in-depth list to pick from.

Still, Argentina will need its top stars to feature if it is to realistically push for a second Davis Cup title, 10 years after its first.

Changing the home city For years now, Argentina has made the Mary Terán de Weiss Stadium at the Parque Roca multisport complex in Buenos Aires City its home. However, the series vs Türkiye at the Ruca Che in Neuquén has proven there’s a lot to be gained from moving away from the capital.

The compact Ruca Che erupted into a ruckus after selling out for the series, something Cerúndolo had pointed out ahead of the matches. While Argentina arrived as an overwhelming favorite and should have taken care of business at any venue, the electric Neuquén crowd undoubtedly gave the Halcones something extra.

With more and more Argentina national teams testing the waters of hosting international events away from Buenos Aires — look at the Pumas or the football national team — tennis will do well to hop on the trend and give the country’s interior more of the spotlight.