Great Britain vs. Argentina Prediction on September 13, 2024

Match info

Some of the most dramatic moments from the men’s tennis Davis Cup Finals Group Stage last year took place at Manchester’s AO Arena, as hosts Great Britain advanced to the finals in Málaga, Spain, with some heart-wrenching victories in September. Now, as they support their team in the 2024 Finals Group Stage (World Group’s Group D), the British supporters will be looking for a repeat performance. On Friday, September 13, at 11 a.m. local time, their team will take on a formidable Argentina team, with South Americans coming after opening the Finals in Canada on Tuesday.

Meeting statistics

The current form of Great Britain

With Jack Draper, possibly the most in-form player of the four teams, the host country, rated 12th, might be the team hardly to defeat in Manchester. The top-seeded British player recently advanced to the US Open semifinals, which is his greatest major tournament finish to date. Additionally, Draper advanced to the Cincinnati quarterfinals last month after controversially defeating Félix Auger-Aliassime. This year, he has advanced to two finals and taken home the championship in Stuttgart in July. The big-serving British player is extremely lethal on quick courts and will present a special challenge indoors on home hard turf.

Should Draper become fatigued or quit from the tie late, the British team still has former No. 21 Dan Evans. But in 2024, he has faced significant challenges. Evans’s record for the year is 4-17. The other notable British player is the veteran Cameron Norrie, a former world No. 8 who withdrew from the team because he hasn’t played since July, similar to Joe Salisbury.

On paper, Britain has the best doubles team. With No. 6 Joe Salisbury and No. 19 Neal Skupski in the doubles rankings, they are the only nation in the group with two players ranked in the Top 20. During the 2023 Davis Cup, Skupski went 3-1 in doubles, including two significant victories in the group stage that made it possible for Britain to advance to the Final 8. The one game he lost was a game in a series where previous games have already determined the result. Evans was his partner in each of those matches, and will continue to be so due to Salisbury’s absence.

The current form of Argentina

The 20th-ranked Argentina appears to be the group’s strongest team in theory. With three players ranked in the ATP Top 100 (No. 21 Sebastián Báez, No. 29 Francisco Cerundolo, and No. 33 Tomás Martín Etcheverry), who are all ranked in the Top 40, it’s the only nation with such a player ranking. On every other team in the group, the Argentine who was mentioned third and is ranked third overall, Etcheverry, would be ranked as the No. 2 singles player.

The surface in Manchester will be the Argentines’ biggest challenge. They’d be the clear favorites if the tie were played on clay, but indoor hard courts will be used. None of the three Argentines have advanced past the third round of a hard-court major in their careers. Báez won the Winston-Salem tournament in 2023, the only final on a hard court the trio has ever reached. It’s interesting to note that the three of them have a combined Davis Cup record of 7-7. Cerundolo and Báez are both 3-3, and Etcheverry is 1-1.

The anticipated Argentine No. 1 player, Báez , has had a busy 2023 with a 30-21 record and two titles, both won in February on clay. His only other clay-court victory this year came when he advanced to the Australian Open’s third round, with his first-round opponent withdrawing. Argentina qualified for the Davis Cup Finals thanks to this 23-year-old, who prevailed in a third-set tiebreak to win the fifth and final rubber.

Cerundolo has achieved some impressive feats this year, including as winning the Umag tournament in July, reaching the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open, and pushing Novak Djoković to a five-set game during the round-of-16 run at Roland-Garros. Etcheverry just defeated Cerundolo in the second round of the US Open, despite being given the role of a third racket in his national team. On the season, he’s 25–22.

To complete its roster, Argentina has two seasoned doubles players: No. 33 Máximo Gonzalez (41) and 36-year-old Andrés Molteni. The only player on the Argentine squad with a winning record at the Davis Cup is the former (8-7).

Head-to-head

Argentina is 2-0 against GB in Davis Cup.

Match analytics

With their depth and home-court advantage, Great Britain is the clear favorite to win. In the Davis Cup Finals, Argentina is the lowest-ranked country, but it’s still in the running and will need to catch Great Britain or one of the other two in the group (Canada and Finland) on a bad day.

Tip: Great Britain to win. At the moment of writing the article, not a single tennis betting site had the odds released for the match in Manchester, but have patience and opt for GB when the time comes.