What’s at stake?                                                                                      Spain and Czechia make their first appearance at the 2023 Davis Cup Finals Group Stage in Valencia on Wednesday and both teams will be desperate to follow in Serbia’s footsteps by starting their campaign with a win. The Spanish, who are without world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz after the 20-year-old withdrew following his loss in the US Open semi-finals, are looking to reach the Final 8 in Malaga for the second straight year. Czechia, meanwhile, have yet to make a run to the knock-out stages since the Davis Cup format changed in 2019. In Tuesday’s opening encounter in Group C, it was Serbia who came out on top with a 3-0 win against Korea, Republic. Today’s winner will join them at the top of the group.
History                                                                                           Czechia, three-time Davis Cup champions, and Spain, who have won this competition six times, have a storied history with seven meetings prior to Wednesday’s clash at the Pabellon Fuente de San Luis. Czechia won their last encounter against Spain in 2012 at the O2 Arena in Prague en route to their second title. Spain got the better of the Czechs in another final back in 2009. Spain’s captain David Ferrer was involved in both those winning and losing Spanish teams and he will surely be hoping to start his tenure as Spanish skipper on the front foot.
Who to look out for                                                                                   With no Carlos Alcaraz in the team, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is likely to play in the No.1 singles spot. Who plays second singles for Spain will depend on whether Roberto Bautista Agut is fit enough to compete. If not, it could be a Davis Cup debut for Bernabe Zapata Miralles. For Czechia, Jiri Lehecka has established himself as one of the top young players in the world and is set in stone as Jaroslav Navratil’s No.1 player. Tomas Machac, fresh from a run to the final of an ATP Challenger event in France on Sunday, or Jakub Mensik, who made it through to the third round at the US Open, are both pushing one another for the second singles spot for Czechia.
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