© Getty Images/Thomas Kronsteiner
Due to the ongoing war in the Ukraine will the Davis Cup qualifiers between Ukraine and the United States will be played in Lithuania on February 1-2. This decision reflects the ongoing challenges facing Ukrainian tennis.
Laying on neutral ground
Actually, Ukraine would have the right to host them Best-of-Five-Serie against that Had US team. However, due to the ongoing hostilities since the Russian Invasion in February 2022 last, a neutral location had to be chosen.
The games will now take place in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania Indoor–Hard courts instead of. Interestingly, Lithuania will also host the clash with Georgia at the same time, a rare one double event in the Davis Cup.
Star-studded teams in extraordinary times
The US team, led by captain Bob Bryan, competes with a strong line-up including Taylor Fritz, the current top American player in the ATP world rankings at No. 10, as well as Sebastian Korda, Christopher Eubanks, Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.
On the other side is the Ukrainian team with its top player Vitaliy Sachko, currently ranked 169th in the world. He is supported by Oleksii Krutykh, Viacheslav Bielinskyi, Vladyslav Orlov and Illya Beloborodko.
The winners of this qualifying round will advance to the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, alongside reigning champion Italy, 2023 runner-up Australia, and wildcard entries Great Britain and Spain.
More exciting encounters
The Davis Cup encounters take place less than a week after the end of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open (January 14th – 28th). Other interesting pairings include Slovakia vs Serbia (without Novak Djokovic), South Korea vs Canada, Belgium vs Croatia, Germany vs Hungary, Switzerland vs Netherlands, Israel vs Czech Republic, Portugal vs Finland, France vs Taiwan, Kazakhstan vs Argentina , Brazil vs. Sweden, and Peru vs. Chile.
2024-01-06 21:37:40
#Tennis #shadow #war #Ukraine #USA #Vilnius
