A place in the Davis Cup World Group is at stake when Australia and Slovakia face off in this weekend’s play-off tie at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney Olympic Park.
It will be the first time the two countries have met in what is dubbed ‘The World Cup of Tennis’, with the winner to be elevated into the World Group for 2017. The loser will be demoted to the Zonal Group and will have to wait another twelve months to have a chance to return to the World Group for 2018.
As the nation with the hosting rights, Australia have elected to contest the tie on grass court, which will be their second tie on the surface this year after having lost to the United States at Kooyong in March.
On that occasion, the Aussies were missing Nick Kyrgios through illness, and after being in doubt for the tie against Slovakia due to a hip injury which forced his retirement against Iliya Marchenko at the US Open, the 21-year-old Canberran has been passed fit to play.
He and Bernard Tomic, who lost to Damir Dzumhur in the first round at Flushing Meadows, will marshall the singles campaign while Sam Groth and John Peers will pair up for the doubles on Saturday before Sunday’s reverse singles.
The Slovakians will be missing their top two ranked men, Martin Klizan (ranked 31st in the world in singles) and Lukas Lacko (102nd), due to injury, and so their hopes will rest on Jozef Kovalik (123rd), Andrej Martin (127th in singles, 83rd in doubles), Nortbert Gombos (334th) and Igor Zelenay (87th in doubles).
Of the team that Slovakia have fielded, Martin is the most prominent of them, having reached the third round of the French Open as a lucky loser. He beat Lucas Pouille in the second round before losing to Milos Raonic in the last 32.
Kovalik, on the other hand, is a regular slugger on the ATP Challenger Tour, the level immediately below the ATP World Tour. He reached a career-high singles ranking of 139 in April 2016 and qualified for the Australian Open earlier this year before entering the main draw of the US Open as a lucky loser.
On paper, it is a tie Australia should win easily, provided either or both of Kyrgios and Tomic win their singles ties on Friday against Andrej Martin and Jozef Kovalik respectively.
Sam Groth, who has grappled with injury and poor form throughout this year, will then pair up with John Peers for the doubles rubber on Saturday against the pairing of Martin and Igor Zelenay, who is more prominent in doubles than he is in singles.
Zelenay, 34, reached career-high rankings of 279 and 50 in singles and doubles respectively, and has never won a top-level title in his career, though at Delray Beach in 2010 he reached the final with Philipp Marx, losing to the Bryan brothers.
Martin, on the other hand, cracked the top 100 in singles in July this year while he reached his highest doubles ranking of 71 the previous month.
Sunday will see Kyrgios face Kovalik while Tomic is up against Martin in the reverse singles.
All matches will use the best-of-five format, as at the Grand Slams, except in the event that if the tie is decided by Saturday, then the reverse singles will essentially be exhibition matches to be played in the best-of-three format.
If the tie is decided after four rubbers, then the fifth rubber will either be played as an exhibition in the best-of-three format, or not contested at all.
Schedule
Friday, September 16 – Singles
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) versus Andrej Martin (SVK)
Bernard Tomic versus Jozef Kovalik (SVK)
Saturday, September 17 – Doubles
Sam Groth (AUS)/John Peers (AUS) versus Andrej Martin (SVK)/Igor Zelenay (SVK)
Sunday, September 18 – Reverse singles
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) versus Jozef Kovalik (SVK)
Bernard Tomic (AUS) versus Andrej Martin (SVK)
The schedule is subject to change without notice.
Prediction
Australia 5-0
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