Over the weekend, Hungary’s tennis team beat Russia in a series of matches in Budapest. With Márton Fucsovics’ victory yesterday, Hungary has now qualified for the Davis Cup World Group, the highest level of the “World Cup of Tennis.”
Hungary’s tennis team celebrating following Márton Fucsovics’ victory over Karen Khachanov on Sunday. Fucsovics’ victory brought Hungary back into the Davis Cup World Group for the first time since 1995 (Photo: MTI – Tibor Illyés)
The weekend’s matches, which were held at Budapest’s Kopaszi Gát (Kopaszi Dam), began badly for the Hungarian team, as Attila Balázs was defeated by Karen Khachanov. Fortunately, Fucsovics responded with a victory over Russia’s Andrey Rublev, bringing the series to 1-1.
The rest of the weekend was a story of Hungarian domination. On Saturday, in a doubles match, Fucsovics and Balazs beat Daniil Medvedev and Konstantin Kravchuk in three sets, bringing the series to 2-1.
Russian tennis player Karen Khachanov playing against Márton Fucsovics at Budapest’s Kopászi Dam (Photo: MTI – Tibor Illyés)
And yesterday, Fucsovics sealed the deal with a resounding singles victory over Khachanov, bringing Hungary’s lead over Russia to 3-1, and securing the country’s place in the World Group stage of the Davis Cup.
This is the first time since 1995 that Hungary has made it into the World Group stage, which is comprised of the top 16 countries in the world. This means that, next year, Hungary will be among the 16 teams competing for tennis’ top prize.
Márton Fucsovics celebrating following his victory on Friday over Andrey Rublev (Photo: MTI – Zsolt Szigetváry)
With its defeat this weekend (alongside other losses over the course of this year), Russia will have to crawl its way back up the regional Davis Cup rankings next year if it hopes to once again become a cup contender in the years to come.
Via MTI, daviscup.com, index.hu, and tennis.life
Images via MTI