DAVIS CUP 2025 PREVIEW: CZECHIA vs KOREA REPUBLIC

The Korea Republic team are in Europe this week and are on a hiding to nothing as they line up against Czechia in the first round of the Qualifiers for the 2025 Davis Cup. The tie will be played on indoor hard courts at the recently remodeled RT Torax Arena in Ostrava and the home team will start as hot favourites to win the right to play the winner of USA vs Chinese Taipei in September’s second round.

Team Korea (minus Gerard Campana Lee) at Incheon Airport (Pic: Korea Tennis Association Facebook)

In Tomáš Macháč, Jiří Lehečka and Jakub Menšík, new Czech Captain Tomáš Berdych has three young top-fifty singles players at his disposal. Moreover, any of the three are more than capable of partnering specialist Adam Pavlasek in the doubles rubber. Seventeen-year-old Maxim Mrva joins the squad for valuable experience. It’s a team that will be the envy of most across the whole competition.

Team Korea therefore has a hard task, and the visitors arrive in an unusual situation and one that is possibly unique in world tennis. Hong Seong-chan, the Korean number one, is currently on his mandatory military service and with protected rankings now available for players who find themselves in such situations, is unavailable for selection.

However, two of the players who have been selected in the five-man squad, are also currently undergoing their eighteen months of military service in the shape of Kwon Soon-woo and Chung Yun-seong. Both appeared at Incheon Airport for the flight out over the weekend, showing off military buzz cuts.

Kwon Soon-woo headlines the team. A two-time ATP 250 winner having scored at Astana in 2021 and Adelaide in 2023, he once hit a high of world number 52. Injuries since then saw him fall back down the rankings and he entered the military at the start of this month with a ranking of 342. At the Busan Open in 2024, the twenty-eight-year-old Kwon told Tennis Asia he has every intention of playing into his late thirties and that he wasn’t unduly concerned about the military interruption.

A very solid Davis Cupper, Kwon has recorded twelve total wins in the competition including notable victories over Denis Istomin, Felix Auger-Aliassime and David Goffin. The latter came in a monumental tie against Belgium in February 2023 when Korea overturned a 2-0 deficit from the opening singles to prevail 3-2 in the deciding rubber on a raucous Sunday afternoon on the indoor court at Seoul Olympic Park.

Kwon hasn’t played competitively since last September and while after army boot camp, his fitness won’t be in doubt, his match sharpness will be. But in the cauldron of Davis Cup, don’t rule him out.

Gerard Campana Lee gets his first call-up for Team Korea. The twenty-year-old has a Spanish father and a Korean mother and grew up in Barcelona. He was a top-10 Junior and won the Orange Bowl in 2022. Throughout his youth, he was able to maintain dual Spanish and Korean citizenship but in common with all Korean males in such a situation, he was required to make a choice when he turned 18 (Korea does not allow dual citizenship for adults because of its military requirements).

He opted for Korean citizenship, which means that just like Kwon and Hong, Campana Lee will sometime down the line have to undergo mandatory military service, barring an Asian Games Gold or Olympic Games medal.

If Campana Lee, who has spent most of his time so far as a pro playing European clay-court Challengers, was to be compared with an established top ten player then it would be Casper Ruud, and not only for the Yonex bandanas that they both regularly sport. His main weapon is his forehand, which while not the most powerful, is consistently strong and accurate. His flat double handed backhand is his weakness, although he fares better on that side with his slice. 

He serves well, but Campana Lee recent form is almost exclusively on clay courts. If selected to play, at this moment in time, it is hard to see him troubling any of the top-fifty Czechs on an indoor hard court, but this tie could be a key part of his development.

In Nam Ji-sung, Korea at least have a high-quality Doubles specialist. The 31-year-old claimed two Challenger titles in 2024, in Gwangju and Taipei alongside Ray Ho. Selecting a competent partner for him is crucial if Korea are to have any chance of making the tie competitive. Kwon or Chung Yun-seong look the most likely candidates.

Chung is currently ranked inside the top 170 in Doubles and has won three titles at Challenger level.

Shin San-hui is somewhat of a journeyman, but he can also hold his own in Doubles, and reached the later rounds of several lower level Challenger events throughout Asia in 2024.

The two teams have met in Davis Cup competition as recently as 2023 when Machac beat Hong Seong-chan in three sets before Lehecka defeated Kwon in straights. The Czechs finished it off in the doubles when Mensik and Pavlasek overcame Nam Ji-sung and Song Min-kyu in three sets.

The tie gets underway on Friday and it is hard to back against Czechia getting the job done in the first three matches.