Davis Cup: Thiem, Tsitsipas - and also a US Open champion at the weekend
Who can play for a final spot at the Davis Cup Final in Madrid in early 2020? And which nations should ensure a good starting position in the medium term?
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Sep 11, 2019, 02:10 pm
As you know, Austria is going to be doing a lot in Finland from Friday, so Dominic Thiem is going on a trip to Scandinavia. The red-white-red team is not the only one who wants to take part again in the bel floor of the most traditional team competition in tennis next year.
The Czech Republic, for example, with front men Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek in recent years, always in the widening circle of title contenders, has to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina for remaining in the world group. And also relies on the youth: Although Jiri Vesely leads the Czech team, captain Jaroslav Navratil also took the freshly chosen junior winner of the US Open to Zenica with Jonas Forejtek. Forejtek struggled hard with the only German participant Milan Welte in the quarter-finals of New York.
Tsitsipas in Athens for Greece
Sousa leads Portugal twice in the race in Belarus, with Joao being the best-ranked individual player of the weekend with position 64. The house armies counter with Egor Gerasimov and Ilya Ivashka, two players who always seem to be close to the top 100 in the ATP world rankings.
Marton Fucsovics, on the other hand, seems to be getting on with the Hungarian tennis association again, in Frankfurt against Germany the clear number one of the Hungarians was still missing. Now in Budapest against Ukraine with indestructible Sergiy Stakhovsky it is about entering the world group and thus about the chance of a place in the final tournament 2020.
After all, great tennis can also be expected in Athens. As part of World Group III, eight teams meet there, divided into two groups of four. The most prominent participant is of course local hero Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has to play in pool A with the Polish number one, Hubert Hurkacz, but at least one formidable opponent. Luxembourg with captain Gilles Müller and Monaco complete this group. In pool B, Estonia, Latvia (without Ernests Gulbis), Montenegro and North Macedonia will compete. By the way, Tsitsipas already won his opening match on Wednesday: 6-1 and 6-0 against Luxembourg's Tom Diederich.