The Philippines will try to defend home court as it faces Greece in the World Group II Playoffs of the Davis Cup on Friday and Saturday at the Philippine Columbian Association tennis courts in Paco, Manila.
AJ Lim, Niño Alcantara, Jeson Patrombon, Ruben Gonzalez, Jed Olivarez, and non-playing team captain Cris Cuarto will fight to remain in Group II under this new playoff format.
It will be the first time that the country will be facing a non-Asian country in the World Cup of Tennis since Sweden in 1991.
For the Greeks, world no. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas will be leading the way along with younger brother Petros, and Markos Kalovelonis. Michail Pervolarakis will not play due to an injury, while Dimitris Chatzinikolaou will be serving as their non-playing skipper.
Tsitsipas, the youngest Top 10 player today, recently finished second to world no. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The two-day affair will feature two singles matches this Friday, with Lim squaring off against Stefanos at 11 a.m., while Jeson Patrombon will match up wil Petros.
On Saturday, Kalovelonis and Petros will face Alcantara and Gonzalez in a doubles match also at 11 a.m.
Patrombon will then play Stefanos in the singles match afterwards, while Lim will close out against Petros.
“It’s been a successful year with ups and downs. Hopefully I could provide inspiration in sports. It will be also good for tennis of the country,” said the 21-year-old Greek sensation.
The shell-clay indoor court of the PCA has served host to numerous Davis Cup games for the past decades.
Lim, a multiple-time UAAP MVP, had beaten Tsitsipas in juniors’ action a few years back, and is very thankful for another opportunity to face one of the world’s best netters.
“It’s a good experience and I’m really excited to play against him.”
For Cuarto, he hopes the surface could help the Filipinos a slight edge against their European counterparts.
“Not a lot of foreign countries are familiar with this kind of court, at the same time, the heat and the humidity. We’ll try to put that in our advantage,” added Cuarto.