The Czech Republic will aim to avenge a humiliating 5-0 defeat in the 2009 Davis Cup final when they take on holders Spain in this year's climax starting here on Friday. The team led by Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek will also want to add another trophy to the Fed Cup which the Czech women's team lifted in Prague earlier this month.
World number six Berdych and 37th-ranked Stepanek are due to face David Ferrer, who stands fifth in the rankings, and 11th-ranked Nicolas Almagro in the singles on the hardcourt of Prague's O2 Arena. Spain will miss their number one Rafael Nadal, who is recovering from a knee injury and who led the team in the 2009 thrashing of the Czechs on a clay court in Barcelona. Stepanek waved that bad memory aside, saying "a lot of time has passed since then."
"Our three greatest advantages are the choice of surface, the home crowd and Nadal's absence," he told reporters on Tuesday. David Ferrer was less pleased with the choice of surface. "The court is the fastest of the year, we never play on a faster court," he said.
"For them it's better than for us," he said, adding that he expected "a very close tie." The 100th edition of the Davis Cup final will be played in front of almost 14,000 people - a crowd that pushed the Czech women's team to a Fed Cup defence following a final victory over Serbia on the first weekend in November. A Davis Cup win would give Czechs a rare team double - last achieved by the United States in 1990.
Spain are looking to add a fourth crown to their three Davis Cup trophies from the last four years. They also won the cup in 2000 and 2004. Czechoslovakia, which split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, won the Davis Cup in 1980 with a team led by the then 20-year-old Ivan Lendl.