PRAGUE — French No. 1 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will take on the Czech Republic’s No. 2 Lukas Rosol in the opening rubber of the Davis Cup World Group quarterfinal tie following Thursday’s draw.
The 10th-ranked Tsonga will face 78th-ranked Rosol on the hardcourt of the Werk Arena in the eastern Czech town of Trinec at 1000 GMT Friday.
French young gun Lucas Pouille, the world No. 21, will then take on the Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely, ranked 50th, in the day’s second rubber.
In Saturday’s doubles rubber, veteran Radek Stepanek and Adam Pavlasek are due to face fresh Wimbledon champions Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert on the hardcourt of the Werk Arena.
In Sunday’s reverse singles, Vesely will first face Tsonga and Rosol is due to play against Pouille.
The French have lost world No. 14 Richard Gasquet to an injury and 17th-ranked Gael Monfils, who is grappling with a mysterious virus.
The Czechs miss their No. 1, eighth-ranked Wimbledon semifinalist Tomas Berdych, who is taking a break after Wimbledon and ahead of the Rio Olympics.
Led by Berdych and Stepanek, the Czech Republic won the Davis Cup in 2012 and 2013.
The team beat Germany 3-2 in the first round this year while France, who last lifted the trophy in 2001, saw off Canada 5-0.
France leads 8-7 in head to head encounters, the latest being its 4-1 win in the semifinals in Paris in 2014, which put an end to the Czechs’ ten-tie winning streak.
The winner of the tie will face either the United States or Croatia in the semifinals.
Pull-outs kill appeal
The Davis Cup quarterfinals take place this weekend but are missing the superstar pulling power of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray and potentially overshadowed by Rafael Nadal’s last-ditch attempt to get to the Rio Olympics.
World No. 1 Djokovic and newly crowned Wimbledon winner Murray had been expected to play in the quarterfinal between Serbia and defending champion Great Britain.
But Djokovic pulled out of the tie after his shock Wimbledon third-round exit to America’s Sam Querrey, the Serb’s earliest loss at a Grand Slam event in nine years.
Murray, the world No. 2, is still officially listed in the British team for the Friday-Sunday tie on outdoor clay in Belgrade.
However, the 29-year-old is expected to watch from the sidelines as he rests after his Wimbledon triumph and ahead of a packed summer schedule which includes the Olympics next month as well as the US Open.
“Andy has to look after his body and his mind. He’s got his eyes set on getting some rest and really making a big push for the Olympics, US Open and beyond,” Britain team captain Leon Smith told the BBC.
The British challenge will be led instead by world No. 67 Kyle Edmund and the 240th-ranked James Ward.
In the absence of Djokovic and Serb No. 2 Viktor Troicki, world No. 81 Dusan Lajovic will lead 2010 champions Serbia.
Fourteen-time major winner Nadal and his Spanish team do not feature in the World Group quarterfinals, but the 30-year-old still faces a key weekend as he hears whether or not the International Tennis Federation (ITF) will give him the go-ahead to take part in Rio.
Nadal hasn’t travelled to Romania for the Euro/Africa zone play-off as he continues to recover from a wrist injury which forced a withdrawal from the French Open and caused him to miss Wimbledon.
Nadal is keen to play in Rio after being unable to defend his gold medal at London in 2012 due to a knee injury but he hasn’t fulfilled the qualifying criteria.
In other quarterfinals this weekend, Italy hosts Argentina in Pesaro.
Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 US Open winner, is back in the Argentina squad after a four-year absence.
Federico Delbonis, the world No. 40, is the South Americans’ top player while Fabio Fognini, ranked 36, leads Italy’s challenge.
Only once since returning to the World Group in 2002 have Argentina failed to have at least made the quarterfinals and that was in 2014 when Italy beat them in the first round.
