Argentina's Davis Cup debut in 1921 started on the wrong foot with a walkover loss to Denmark in the first round. They played their first Davis Cup matches in 1923, losing 1–4 in the first round against Switzerland. After several years of toiling in the regional and preliminary rounds, led by Guillermo Vilas and José Luis Clerc, Argentina reached their first finals in 1981, losing to the United States. After avoiding relegation from the World Group the next year, Argentina reached the semifinals in 1983, losing in Stockholm against the Swedish team. In the subsequent years, Argentina couldn't repeat that performance and was relegated to the Americas I Group in 1987. Returned in the 1990-92 World Group, that year was relegated to the Americas Zone again and would not return to main competition until the 2002 Davis Cup, reaching the semifinals again in a loss to Russia that included a historical doubles match between Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin against David Nalbandian and Lucas Arnold Ker that at 6 hours and 20 minutes is the longest doubles match in recorded history. Since 2002, Argentina has reached the finals on four occasions in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2016. They were crowned as champions for the first time after defeating Croatia in the final in 2016. However, the following year they were relegated to the first group of the Americas Zone.