We know the Czech national team nomination for the Davis Cup qualification in February. Lehečka will be the team leader in Portugal

The qualifying round of the 111th Davis Cup is approaching. The Czech tennis players will play the Portuguese team on its soil on the weekend of 4 and 5 February. On Friday, the non-playing captain Jaroslav Navrátil announced the nomination, which includes the current top-ranked Czech Jiří Lehečka.

The twenty-one-year-old is currently ranked 81st in the ATP singles rankings and is thus Navrátil’s number one choice.

Besides Lehečka, the other Czech member of the top 100, the two years older Tomas Machac, the 97th player in the world, will also be a member of the team.

However, there is a question mark over his health. Recently, he injured his ankle in a match with Frances Tiafoe of the USA at the United Cup. On the other hand, Jiri Vesely, who has been struggling with the injury for a long time, will certainly miss the match.

The rest of the team consists of the 140th best singles player Vít Kopřiva and the great talent Jakub Menšík, who is only 17 years old. Adam Pavlásek, who has been focusing only on doubles lately, is also part of the national five.

In less than a month they will play on clay indoors at the tennis complex in Maia. “I’m especially glad that it will be played indoors and not outdoors. The conditions will be similar to the ones the boys have been training in,” captain Navrátil told Tennis World.

At the same time, he points out that the clay surface will be a certain specificity in the phase of the season when tournaments are played on concrete. “It’sfifty-fifty. The level of their players is similar to our players.”

On the same day, the Portuguese announced their nomination for the qualifying match. The team of João Sousa (82nd in the ATP rankings), Nuno Borges (112th), Frederico Silva (201st), Gastão Elias (232nd) and Francisco Cabral, a doubles specialist, will play in front of the home crowd under the guidance of Ruia Machado.

Twelve teams will qualify for the Davis Cup final tournament, while four others are already guaranteed to participate. These are the Canadians, the last champions, the Australians, the beaten finalists of 2022, and the wild card holders, which are the Italians and the Spaniards.

In the qualifying round itself, in addition to Portugal and the Czech Republic, Croatia will face Austria, Hungary and France, Uzbekistan and the USA, Germany and Switzerland, Colombia and Great Britain, Norway and Serbia, Chile and Kazakhstan, South Korea and Belgium, Sweden and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands and Slovakia, and Finland and Argentina.

Source: Davis Cup, Czech Davis Cup Team, Tennis World, ATP