Czech tennis players defeated the Serbs and dominated the Davis Cup final group undefeated. Menšík made his singles debut, the world number one also entered the game

The duel between the Czech Republic and Serbia in Group C of the final stage of the Davis Cup was a duel between the teams that had already advanced. The participation in Valencia ended victoriously with the selection of the non-playing captain Jaroslav Navrátil, thanks to wins in singles and the final doubles.

Navrátil changed the nominations for the individual matches on Saturday. In the first singles match, unlike the matches against the Spaniards and South Koreans, Jakub Mensik and not Tomas Machac entered. For the talented 18-year-old tennis player it was his singles debut in the famous men’s national team competition.

And he managed it with great ease, although he challenged 99 places higher on the ATP ranking and much more experienced Dusan Lajovic. Fifteen years older player could not find a recipe for the whole match on the game of the high-serving youngster.

In the end, the encounter lasted only 54 minutes. Menšík was in the lead from the very beginning when he took his opponent’s first serve and led the opening set to a score of 6: 3. He supported his equally successful entry into the second set with another break in the fifth game and won 6: 2.

“Service was important today. I think I served very well. I also hit some returns and played well on the important points. I’m happy with my performance today,” said Mensik to CT Sport about his performance on the fast hard court at the Pabellón Municipal Fuente San Luis arena.

The subsequent singles, which is traditionally a clash of team leaders, did not feature Serbia’s biggest star Novak Djokovic.

In this case, it was a more even show. The first set did not offer any break points, so the tiebreak had to decide the winner. It didn’t bring many twists and turns either, but the twenty-one-year-old Czech managed the end better. After a converted third set point, he won the shortened game 9:7.

In the second set, the tennis player from Kněžmost took a 4:1 lead. But then he lost his serve and the Serbian evened the score. Moreover, he encouraged himself to the end of the set with three converted break points in the ninth game. However, Lehecka confirmed the game feeling from this week in Valencia and ended the two-hour match two games later. Overall, he won 7:6 and 7:5.

At the same time, he secured a winning point for the Czech Republic and the certainty of advancing to the November playoffs from the first place in the group. In the evening, the doubles was also on the agenda, in which the aforementioned old world number one was also present. Djokovic, alongside Nikola Ćaćić, faced the pair of Tomáš Macháč, Adam Pavlásek.

The key moment of the first set came in the penultimate game. During Ćaćić’s serve, the Czechs got a break and Pavlásek then completed the set with a final score of 7:5. The second set had almost the same development, except that it culminated in a tiebreak. The Serbian pair was more successful in it and the Czech pair lost 7:9.

A super tiebreak followed, but not a complete third set. Machac and Pavlasek dominated the battle to ten points and outplayed their opponents 10:3. After Spain and South Korea, the Czech Republic also defeated Serbia 3: 0. The play-off for the top eight teams of the 111th Davis Cup will take place from 21 to 26 November in Málaga.

Source: Davis Cup, ATP, CT Sport