Diego Nargiso stands with Filippo Volandri: “Right to deploy Berrettini.”

Nargiso defends Volandri’s choice

Diego Nargiso, a former tennis player, commented on Italy’s Davis Cup loss to Canada to the microphones of SuperNews, defending, among other things, captain Filippo Volandri’s choice to field Matteo Berrettini in the doubles decider in place of the injured Simone Bolelli.

“For sure there is regret, we came close to doing the feat,” Nargiso admitted. “Unfortunately, with the new Davis Cup formula, best of two matches out of three, the doubles becomes crucial and we didn’t have great chances. There remains regret, but also the knowledge that by always playing to win it as has been happening in recent years, sooner or later success will come.”

He then defended captain Volandri’s choice to replace Bolelli with Berrettini: “I think it was right to field Berrettini, our player with more experience also and especially in playing matches at this level. No one better than Volandri could know how the guys were doing, so if he opted for Matteo it certainly gave him guarantees.”

“Definitely it would have been a more balanced match, but we can never be sure how it would have gone. Certainly Bolelli and Fognini have shown that they are very competitive and could have done well, pero every match is on its own and you have to play it, with all the difficulties involved,” he said on a hypothetical employment of Musetti with Fognini.

Finally he commented on the two singles matches, “Sonego as always amazed and once again showed his Davis skills, pulling out all he had for the national team. Last year, in a moment of difficulty, he had not been able to show them completely, so it was a good rematch for him. Unfortunately, Musetti actually arrived tired and drained at the appointment, not so much in terms of motivation but in terms of physical strength. Playing as No. 1 he also had very complicated matches.”