Tennis players Francisco Cabral and Nuno Borges lost this Saturday to Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler, which allowed Austria to reduce the gap in the tie with Portugal, in the race for the qualifying play-offs for the Davis Cup 2024.
Cabral, the greatest national specialist and 54th in the world ranking of couples, and Borges, number one of the Portuguese and 89th in the ATP individual ranking, were defeated by Erler and Miedler, 36th and 37th in the hierarchy of variants, in two sets, by partials of 6-7 (0-7), 6-7 (5-7), in a match that lasted one hour and 49 minutes on the covered hard floor of the Multiversum Schwechat, an Austrian city southeast of Vienna.
Now the first and only duel of pairs between Portugal and Austria in this last qualifying round of Group I World Cup, the national team remains ahead, but now 2-1, facing the triumphs of Nuno Borges and João Sousa in their respective unique encounters on Friday.
Portugal needs only one point to qualify for the play-off for access to next year’s Davis Cup final, having to win one of the two remaining matches on this last day, the first between Nuno Borges and Dennis Novak (192nd in the world). ranking) and then between João Sousa (289th) and Jurij Rodionov (109th).
The team that wins the duel will guarantee a place in the play-offs to access the Davis Cup Finals, while the defeated team will also play the play-offs in 2024 to remain in Group I and avoid relegation.
Source: TSF
