The Australian Open may have just concluded last Sunday with Roger Federer winning his fifth title Down Under and 18th major title overall, but the Australian summer of tennis isn’t quite over – just yet.
This weekend, Australia’s Davis Cup campaign will begin in earnest when they face the Czech Republic in the first round of the World Group stage, with a quarter-final berth against either the United States or Switzerland at stake.
Last year, the Australians, in Lleyton Hewitt’s first year as captain, went down to the United States in the corresponding round last year, but kept their place in the World Group after clean-sweeping Slovakia in Sydney last September.
They will fancy their chances of reaching the quarter-finals for the second time in three years. Not only do they have a dominant 7-1 record against the Czechs, but the visitors will be without former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych.
In addition, the Aussies also conquered the Czechs in their past meeting, also in the first round of the World Group, just under two years ago in Ostrava.
Berdych’s absence cancels that out of Bernard Tomic for Australia, who has withdrawn due to scheduling conflicts – a decision that has earned the ire of captain Lleyton Hewitt and teammate Nick Kyrgios.
With Tomic missing, the Aussies’ hopes will rest on the 21-year-old Canberran, who returns to action for the first time since his second round loss to Andreas Seppi at the Australian Open a fortnight ago.
He will come up against 26-year-old Jan Satral, who reached the second round of last year’s US Open as a qualifier, in the second match of the tie. It will be his first World Group singles tie since mid-July 2015.
Before that, Davis Cup debutant Jordan Thompson, who reached the second round at Melbourne Park, faces a tricky opening match against Jiri Vesely, who is not only the Czechs’ highest-ranked singles player in Berdych’s absence, but also boasts a shock victory over Novak Djokovic at last April’s Monte Carlo Masters.
Saturday will see Sam Groth and Australian Open mixed doubles champion John Peers team up for the doubles tie against little-known Zdenek Kolar and veteran Radek Stepanek, who has been touted as a potential future coach for Nick Kyrgios when he retires from professional tennis in the near future.
Sunday’s reverse singles will pit Kyrgios and Thompson up against Vesely and Satral respectively.
Kyrgios defeated Vesely in their only previous meeting, at Wimbledon in 2014, before scoring a sensational upset victory over then-world number one Rafael Nadal in his next match at the same tournament.
If the tie by that point is 2-1 in Australia’s favour, then victory will put the tie out of the Czechs’ reach, otherwise, if it is 1-2, he will be playing to keep the tie alive and therefore force the one-rubber shootout between Thompson and Satral.
As per the Grand Slam tournaments, the best-of-five format will be employed for all matches, and, under new rules approved in September 2015, a tiebreak will be used if the score in the fifth and final set of any live match goes to 6-all.
If the tie is won in either the third or fourth rubbers, then any remaining matches will be rendered as exhibition matches and will therefore employ the best-of-three format, or the final match may not be played depending on the state of affairs.
This is unlike in the Fed Cup, in which ties take place across two days rather than three, and the second of the reverse singles rubbers is not contested if the score by that point is 3-0. However, the doubles is still contested as an exhibition match.
If Australia wins in what would be Lleyton Hewitt’s first World Group win as captain, they will either host the United States at home or travel to play Switzerland in the second weekend of April. The Swiss will be without both recently-minted Australian Open champion Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka for that tie.
Beyond that, top seeds and defending champions Argentina could then await in the semi-finals.
Otherwise, the Aussies will fight to avoid relegation to the Davis Cup second tier against an opponent yet to be decided in the week after the US Open in September.
Schedule
Friday, February 3 – Singles
Play starts 11:00am
Jordan Thompson (AUS) versus Jiri Vesely (CZE)
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) versus Jan Satral (CZE)
Saturday 4 February 2017 – Doubles
Play starts 12:00pm
Sam Groth/John Peers (AUS) versus Zdenek Kolar/Radek Stepanek (CZE)
Sunday 5 February 2017 – Reverse singles
Play starts 11:00am
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) versus Jiri Vesely (CZE)
Jordan Thompson (AUS) versus Jan Satral (CZE)
The schedule is subject to change without notice.
Prediction
Australia 4-1
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