On February 3-4, the Davis Cup World Group I qualifying match between the Ukrainian and Lebanese national teams will be held on the hard courts of the Leszno Tennis Klub complex in Leszno, Poland. Due to the Russian occupation, it was not possible to play another home match in Ukraine, this time the Poles came to the rescue.

In September last year, in the First World Group match, the Ukrainians lost to the Hungarian team in the so-called home match in Lithuania (1:3) and in the Second World Group match the Lebanese beat the Monaco team (3:2). The winner of the match in September will fight for the right to play in next year’s Davis Cup Finals, with the losing team going to World Group Two.

who will play

The composition of the Ukrainian team:

Alexander Ovcharenko (No. 379 ATP)
Vladislav Orlov (No. 385 ATP)
Vyacheslav Belinsky (№622 ATP)
Ilya Beloborodko (No. 747 ATP, No. 531 ATP pairs)
Vladislav Manafov (No. 145 ATP pairs)

Team captain – Orest Tereshchuk.

The conflict between the players and the FTU leadership could not be resolved and our team is playing with the 2nd squad again. This time even the captain’s position changed. For the first time since 2017, Andrey Medvedev will not be in this role. This time, the famous Ukrainian tennis player and coach Orest Tereshchuk will lead the team. He held this post from 2008 to 2012. Under his captaincy, the Ukrainian national team held 9 match meetings, in which he won 5 wins.

The current roster differs from September with the presence of Alexander Ovcharenko, which will be his first performance in the national team. It is not assigned to any match based on the results of the draw, but at least the second day is always conditional. Also, Alexander is the highest rated member of our team in singles. Last year, Ovcharenko won three ITF tournaments on dirt, but lost all three games earlier this season, one against Orlov. Vladislav’s situation is not very good – two wins in six fights in the new year. In 2023, Belinsky entered the field once, losing in the first round in the 15,000th ITF. Beloborodko played a tournament in the same category, where she reached the 1/4 finals. Manafov has already played doubles in Challenger’s semi-finals.

Lebanon squad:

Benjamin Hassan (#324 ATP, #434 doubles)
Hadi Khabib (#451 ATP, #879 doubles)
Hassan Ibrahim
Fadi Youssef – playing captain

As a result of the draw, we got one of the best options at this stage – the national team of Lebanon with only two competitive tennis players. This is our first time playing with this team. The third number of the Lebanese does not have a rating and has not yet won for the national team, and the fourth is four years older than Tereshchuk and played in the first half of the 2000s and is listed as a conditionally playing captain.

Benjamin Hassan was born in Germany, but represents his historic homeland. He won 10 of 14 games in singles at the Davis Cup, not so well in doubles (1-4). He recently reached the semi-finals in singles at the ITF 25,000 held in Kuwait.

Hadi Khabib played a game he lost this year. He won 17 of 22 singles and 4 of 9 doubles for the national team, but they were all on a slightly different level.

Match schedule and where to watch

Friday, February 3

12:00 – Vladislav Orlov – Hadi Khabib
2nd launch – Vyacheslav Belinsky – Benjamin Hassan

Saturday, February 4

12:00 – Ilya Beloborodko / Vladislav Manafov – Hadi Habib / Hasan Ibrahim
2nd launch – Vladislav Orlov – Benjamin Hassan
3rd launch – Vyacheslav Belinsky – Hadi Habib

The match will be broadcast live on Spor 1 TV channel.

guess

We will probably be the favorites in the doubles match, the Vladislav Manafov / Ilya Beloborodko duo showed themselves very well against the Hungarians. In singles matches against the first trick of the Lebanese, it will be a little more difficult that you can play with the second. So even with this composition on paper, we seem a little stronger. But everything will depend on the many minor moments that play a decisive role in fairly even encounters. We hope Orest Tereshchuk finds the right words and can bring the players to the matches in the best possible way.

Prediction Sport.ua: Ukraine wins 3:2