Davis Cup has South American flair with Argentina-Brazil starting Friday

Back in September, The International Tennis Federation (ITF) had their general annual meeting held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and decided Argentina will face Brazil in the first round of this year’s Davis Cup. That matchup will take place this weekend in Buenos Aires.

An all-South American clash sees neighbors and long-time rivals Argentina and Brazil battle it out for the first time in the World Group.

According to international ticket reseller Ticketbis, tickets to the 2015 Davis Cup matchup in Argentina start at just $105 (for Sunday’s matches). Ticketbis data shows that only 3.2% of their sales for the 2014 Davis Cup came from Brazil and Argentina, however, this figure is set to multiply significantly due to the hype around this classic rival matchup.

The Argentine tennis team was seeded fifth for the upcoming tournament, and will receive the Brazilians, who re-gained World Group status after their 3-1 victory versus Spain, although Spain competed without their two largest names, Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer.

The Argentine team is headlined by world #29 ranked Leonardo Mayer and also includes Diego Sebastian Schwartzman, Carlos Berlocq, and Federico Delbonis. Their captain is Daniel Orsanic. Argentina top player Juan Martin del Potro, who has been sidelined for nearly a year with an injury, will not be able to play.

Brazil’s lineup consists of Joao Souza, Thomaz Bellucci, Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soarez. The captain is Joao Zwetsch.

Argentina last played against Brazil in 1980, when Vilas and Clerc lead the team to a 4-1 victory. The two sides have faced each other seven times, with Argentina winning five of the meetings. The Argentines are the most consistent nation over the past decade and they will take heart from the fact that you have to go all the way back to 1975 for the last time that Brazil defeated them.

The rest of the 2015 Davis Cup matches go as follows (seeds in brackets): Germany vs. France (1), UK vs. USA (7), Czech Republic (3) vs. Australia, Kazakhstan vs. Italy (6), Serbia (4) vs. Croatia, Canada (8) vs. Japan and Belgium vs. Switzerland (2).

The winner of the Argentina-Brazil series will take on the winner of Croatia-Serbia in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

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