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Berdych And Minar Will Lead Czechs Against Argentina

POSTED: 4:48 am HST July 9, 2009

(Sports Network) - Tomas Berdych and Ivo Minar will play singles matches for the Czech Republic on Friday against the Argentine duo of Juan Monaco and Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals of the 2009 Davis Cup.

Minar is taking the place of Radek Stepanek, who has been bothered by a knee injury and is still on the roster for this weekend's tie. Argentina will play without the injured David Nalbandian.

Berdych will take the court first on Friday against Monaco, while Minar will then face world No. 5 del Potro in the second of the day's two rubbers.

Saturday's doubles match is currently scheduled to feature Stepanek and Lukas Dlouhy against del Potro and Leonardo Mayer.

Berdych and del Potro are slated to open Sunday's reverse singles, with Minar and Monaco scheduled for the potential decisive match.

Minar's only previous Davis Cup experience came in 2007, when he lost to American Andy Roddick in a first-round tie. Berdych, meanwhile, owns a Davis Cup singles mark of 11-6, including a victory over France's Gilles Simon in this year's first round back in March.

The Czechs advanced with a 3-2 win over France, while Argentina rolled to a 5-0 win over the Netherlands in the first round. The Argentines were last year's Davis Cup runners-up to Spain.

Monaco was a straight-set winner against Thiemo de Bakker in this year's first round rout and has a 2-1 record in Davis Cup singles play. Del Potro did not see action against the Dutch and is 4-2 in singles action. He won both of his singles matches in the semifinals a year ago against Russia, then lost to Feliciano Lopez in the final against Spain.

Argentina, playing in the quarterfinals for the eighth consecutive year, won the last meeting with the Czech Republic -- a 5-0 whitewash in the 2005 first round. The Czechs, playing as Czechoslovakia, won the other two meetings in 1987 and 1980 -- both in zonal action.

The winner of this quarterfinal matchup will meet the winner between the United States and Croatia in the semifinals in September.


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