Portuguese Davis Cup Team Captain Rui Machado insists his side is eager to beat Kazakhstan this week and achieve their best-ever result in the competition by qualifying for the Davis Cup Finals event in November. Kazakhstan are set to host Portugal in a Davis Cup qualifying round tie on an indoor-hard court in Astana from February 01-02.
Portuguese Captain Machado nominated Joao Sousa, Pedro Sousa, Gastao Elias and Joao Domingues for the tie. On the other side, the hosts will be represented by Mikhail Kukushkin, Alexander Bublik, Aleksandr Nedovyesov, Denis Yevseyev, Timur Khabibulin.
The team from Kazakhstan is very good. Their players are very good and have a good record in the Davis Cup. But I also believe in my players, we are in good shape and have done a very good preparation, Machado said, per the Davis Cup site.
Top-ranked Kazakh player Kukushkin insists his side wont be taking the Portuguese for granted. The Portuguese team have great players, starting from Joao Sousa. He is a good player, he has better rating than we have.
He is scheduled to play in all three matches. From playing on the tour I know their team are good players, Kukushkin said. I expect tough matches in next two days, we know them very well but they also know how we are playing.
Also read: Serbian basketball star: Novak Djokovic is a big basketball fan
0 thoughts on “Portugal target to achieve their best-ever Davis Cup result this week”