After beating France in Davis Cup action on Tuesday, Australia improved to a record of two wins and zero losses on Thursday after sweeping the Czech Republic three matches to none in Valencia, Spain. In the first match, Thanasi Kokkinakis of Adelaide defeated Jakub Mensik 6-2, 6-7, 6-3. Then in the second match, Alexei Popyrin of Sydney, the National Bank Open champion, defeated Tomas Machac 1-0 after Machac withdrew because of a leg injury. With Australia already have beaten the Czech Republic, the men’s doubles team of Matthew Ebden of Perth and Max Purcell of Sydney beat Jakub Mensik and Adam Pavlasek 6-4, 6-2.
The most complete meaningful performance came from Kokkinakis. The Adelaidean had 19 aces compared to 14 for Mensik. Kokkinakis broke Mensik four times, while Mensik broke Kokkinakis once. Another key statistic was unforced errors as Kokkinakis had 33, while Mensik had 45. The unforced error statistic can be very challenging to find, but when it is shown, it can be a very useful statistic to analyze a match.
Australia has one more tie left in Group B play, but their tie against Spain may not have any consequence. If Spain beats France on Friday, France will be eliminated, and Spain and Australia will be the nations that will move on to the knockout round in Spain in November. Australia can also advance before their match against Spain, if France beats Spain, but loses to the Czech Republic. Spain will be the heavy favourite to beat France, as they have the reigning French Open champion and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz in their lineup.
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