This Sunday, the Portuguese tennis team lost the day against the Czech Republic (3-1), at the Complexo Municipal de Ténis da Maia, and was one step away from qualifying, for the first time, for the Davis Cup final.
João Sousa, number one in Portugal and number 84 in the world, had a very difficult task ahead of him, as he was forced to beat Jiri Lehecka, 39th in the world, to equalize the tie and postpone the qualifying decision for the final duel . . He was not happy and the young opponent, 21 years old, sealed the victory in two setsby 6-4 and 6-1, after one hour and 25 minutes.
The 33-year-old Guimarães was even the first to win the breakin the fifth game, but did not confirm and Jiri Lehecka, who recently reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, did not waste the opportunity to take command of the match in second. fixed pointhe had in the tenth game.
At the icing on the cake, and only one game away from offering victory to the Czech Republic, a country Portugal had never defeated in the two previous matches, in 1955 and 1971, the Czech tennis player took advantage of his good physical condition, confidence and status at the top 40 in the world, owner of a devastating forehand and a powerful serve, to impose two service breaks on the host and close the match.
After the defeat in the two singles on Saturday, the victory today in doubles and the defeat in the decisive match, the team failed, for the fourth time in history, to reach the Davis Cup final, after the defeats in 1994 (Croatia), 2017 (Germany) and 2019 (Kazakhstan), thus remaining in Group I.
The Czech Republic team, made up of Lehecka, Tomas Machac (122nd ATP), Vit Kopriva (160th), Jakub Mensik (396th) and Adam Pavlasek (78th in the couples ranking), will be part of the round of 16 teams in the final phase of the emblematic contest, which they won three times, in 1980, 2012 and 2013.
Source: TSF
