Finland the national tennis Davis Cup team has been in a similar situation before. At stake is a place in the final tournament of the world group when Argentina meet in Espoo at the weekend.
Compared to previous years, Finland has a tougher team than ever, but so does the opposition.
We have to go back 25 years, when Finland faced a group even tougher than Argentina. France played in Tali against Finland in 1998. The top team at that time was formed by Cedric Piolineranking 14 in the ATP list, and Guillaume RaouxATP-40.
Reaching towards the top Francisco CerundoloATP-31 and Pedro CachinATP-68, create a solid foundation for Argentina’s number one boxing.
“A cool match coming up”, Emil Ruusuvuori says Talissa at the team’s training camp.
“I’d much rather fight them in the Metro Arena than in the mass field in Buenos Aires. Let’s try to make the most of it.”
The rankings favor Argentina, but from the beginning of the Metro Arena, Finland. The semi-fast hard court is suitable for Ruusuvuori and for those who specialize in doubles For Harri Heliövaara.
The arena will have a new coating, and a captain Jarkko Nieminen the only concern before the match was that the court would not have such a slow surface.
Emil Ruusuvuori trained at the Tali tennis center on Tuesday.
Finland and Argentina met once in 1960, but this time a draw was needed to see who would get the important qualifying match on their home field. Finland won this round.
The host country can choose the venue and platform for the match within certain norms.
“He can play on every platform, and he has a lot of power,” Ruusuvuori says of Cerundolo.
Ruusuvuori has never faced number one player Cerundolo in an official match before the weekend’s international match. Both have the advantage of knowing each other. They have played in the same Bundesliga team in Munich.
The nature of the Davis Cup is that the biggest dose of pressure piles up on Ruusuvuori’s neck. He would need to win his first singles match on Saturday, when he will face Argentina’s second seed.
Another victory would have to be scratched on Sunday against Curundolo, and even then in doubles.
Emil Ruusuvuori
If comparing the teams’ number one players, the tennis year of both did not start very well. Cerundolo won only two matches in the Australian tournaments, Ruusuvuori not even that much.
Rusuvuori felt that he was completely lost at the beginning of the Australian tour, but he started to find his game in Melbourne Andrei Rublev against.
Rublev knocked Ruusuvuori out in the second round of the Australian Open, but had to work hard at times.
“It went uphill. The first two weeks were difficult, but at the end it started to feel like I was on my own level.”
Years in ATP tournaments and on the tour have taught Ruusuvuori that more bangs are still needed to succeed.
“Aggressiveness, making the pass more efficient, better movement so that you can get the ball back more often”, Ruusuvuori lists and adds the great importance of the pass and the subsequent palm strike.
The tops of the world create a place for a solution or rivet a breakthrough from almost nothing. Rusuvuori does that less often.
“That’s what I miss more, that I can maintain my level. And to be at the fair from the beginning [mukana] in play.”
Last the season was tough for Ruusuvuori. He says the jacket was pumped up after qualifying for the Paris Masters. At the Stockholm Open, he rushed to the semifinals, but Vienna and Paris fell short.
The qualifying loss at the end of October was like an order to go on vacation. That’s what Ruusuvuori did and spent a rare three-week break as a tennis player.
“I already wanted to come back. In that sense, it was too long, if you think about the match experience.”
About a year ago, Ruusuvuori played in the first ATP final of his career. The defeat came, and another final match was not on the way.
Is it starting to feel pressure that there hasn’t been a tournament win?
“Is not. I have to focus on how I do my own thing – and it will come if it has to come.”
Harri Heliövaara
When Ruusuvuori bears a big responsibility in singles, and perhaps also in doubles, Heliövaara focuses only on Sunday’s doubles.
However you go about Saturday’s matches, the doubles will be very important on the second day of play.
“This Davis Cup is perfect timing when the Australian Open fell short. The conditions are good, and the start is the same with which I will continue the season after this,” says Heliövaara.
British couple by Lloyd Glasspool and Heliövaara’s games at the Australian Open were somehow left unfinished. The Finnish star’s back failed in the second round of the fight Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata against.
Heliövaara had already made it to Finland and home when he saw that Kulbler and Hijikata had won the entire tournament. In terms of Heliövaara, first the back let me down, and then the script. This tournament could have been theirs.
The back problem is starting to be overcome. It took quite a week, and that happened sometime years ago, when the injury struck the last time.
As a confirmation, Glasspool sent a message that these will come. Great encouragement.
In any case, Heliövaara’s balance from the other side of the globe was handsome. A tournament win in Adelaide, a place in the semi-finals and a win at the Australian Open.
“Last year we got 90 points and now 430”, Heliövaara calculates.
The captain of the Finnish Davis Cup team is Jarkko Nieminen.
Finland included as early as 1928
■ The Davis Cup culminates in the final tournament of the world’s 16 best countries next September after the US Open.
■ Reigning champion Canada, Australia, who lost the final, and wild card Italy and Spain will enter.
■ The last 12 places come from the qualifying matches, in which Finland also participates by facing Argentina. The winner of this pair advances to the final tournament.
■ Finland has played four times in the decisive match of the qualification and lost each time. The years are 1990 (Sweden vs. 0-5), 1999 (Italy 2-3), 2002 (Netherlands 1-4) and in DC’s revised version vs. Belgium 2022 (2-3).
■ Finland played its first Davis Cup international match in 1928.
■ Argentina played their first DC match in 1923, and won the tournament in 2016.
Read more: Emil Ruusuvuori was eliminated in the second round in Australia
Read more: Emil Ruusuvuori won a day-long match against Max Purcell in Australia
Read more: Heliövaara and Glasspool lost to a pair of wild cards – the Finn’s back failed
Read more: Harri Heliövaara, together with his partner, is already the best in the world in one subject
Read more: Emil Ruusuvuori meets a qualifier at the Australian Open – then the ride gets tougher
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