SANTIAGO, Chile – The new Spain is knocking on the door of the Davis Cup. With their swift victory over Chile, they have qualified for the Finals once again and, with a team made up almost entirely of players under 24, are hoping to usher in a new era for Spanish tennis: the post-“Rafael Nadal” era.
In Santiago de Chile, Spain fielded three players under the age of 22: Daniel Mérida, 21, and Rafael Jódar and Martín Landaluce, both just 20. All three played singles matches, and all three won.
Beyond the result, the young Spanish trio represents some of the most promising players on the circuit today.
Jódar is world No. 14, the champion of the ATP 250 in Marrakech and a Masters 1000 semi-finalist in Canada. Mérida won the title in Umag and broke into the world Top 40. Landaluce, meanwhile, reached the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 events in Miami and Rome.
“We are lucky to have young players with huge potential. We have a very good combination of young players and others who also have a lot of experience in the Davis Cup,” said Spanish captain David Ferrer.
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Their teammates were Pedro Martínez and Jaume Munar, both 29, who celebrated victory in their doubles tie. The pair reflected on this new generation, which should also be strengthened by Carlos Alcaraz in Bologna as Spain look to win the seventh Davis Cup title in their history.
“We created a good atmosphere where the younger players felt very much part of the team. We are here to push each other, all together, regardless of our individual situations. Last year, even without Carlos [Alcaraz], we also achieved incredible results in the Davis Cup thanks to that unity. We are a committed team that adapts. That has infinite value — the unity and cohesion within the group,” Munar explained in Santiago.
Spain’s seventh Davis Cup title would also be their first without Rafael Nadal. The 22-time Grand Slam champion led his country in five editions (2004, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2019) and became a legend of the competition. Since the 1970s, only Joe McEnroe and Feliciano López have won the same number of titles.
David Ferrer has played a leading role in this transformation. He took over as captain at the end of 2022 and began building a new team around Carlos Alcaraz. Although the current world No. 2 has missed the last two ties to rest, his presence in Bologna is a given provided he is physically fit.
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As the ties went by, Albert Ramos, Roberto Bautista Agut, Pablo Carreño-Busta and Nadal himself gradually faded from the picture. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was also part of the team, but after withdrawing from the September 2025 tie, he became embroiled in a major dispute with Ferrer and has not been called up since.
Now, in November, Spain can cap off a spectacular season by putting behind them the disappointment of losing the 2025 final to Italy.
A flying visit to Santiago
Spain wrapped up the tie against Chile with a commanding 4-0 victory, losing just one set all weekend and finishing three of the four matches in less than an hour and 30 minutes.
Although Daniel Mérida had to fight to beat Alejandro Tabilo 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, the rest of the tie was extremely comfortable for last year’s Davis Cup finalists.
Rafael Jódar claimed the second point with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Cristian Garin, while in the doubles, Pedro Martínez and Jaume Munar led 6-0, 5-0 before sealing the second set 6-3.
The tie ended with Martín Landaluce beating Matías Soto 6-2, 6-3.
For Chile, the situation is more complicated. Although they were not favourites going into the tie, the performance after the three matches raises questions about the country’s real chances of breaking through the Top 16 and eventually reaching the group of the eight best nations — something they last achieved in 2010, with Fernando González and Nicolás Massú as their leading figures.
Massú, in particular, now faces the difficult task of trying to help this team — which has been among the Top 16 in 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2025 — break through its current ceiling with a group of players who are not going through their best moment: Alejandro Tabilo is world No. 28, but Cristian Garin and Tomás Barrios are outside the Top 100. Nicolás Jarry, meanwhile, is currently ranked No. 857 after a lengthy injury.
