At the inaugural United Cup in 2023, Jiri Lehecka was honoured to represent Team Czech Republic alongside a player who’d scaled the sport’s highest peaks.
“She is a Grand Slam champion which speaks for itself,” Lehecka said of Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion.
“She is perfect and trying to help us. She has a different point of view than other coaches. She has been through everything, now she is sitting with you at the bench and telling you how she sees it which is very interesting.
“She gives you good tips."
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Lehecka will no doubt be thrilled to return to the United Cup in 2024 alongside another Czech lefty who has hoisted the trophy at the All England Club.
Marketa Vondrousova broke through for her first major title at Wimbledon in July, an incredible performance which saw her overcome years of injury struggles to fulfill her considerable talent.
Now inside the top 10, it was her ranking which helped qualify the Czechs for the United Cup. She and Lehecka lead a squad which is seeded No.5 and which heads to Perth for Group E matches against Serbia and China.
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Vondrousova may not club the ball as forcefully as Kvitova, but she plays an intriguingly unorthodox brand of tennis built around touch, angles and instinct.
She was close to becoming a two-time major winner herself, advancing to the Roland Garros final in 2019 while still a teenager. Still just 24 years of age, she has plenty of time to add more of the sport’s biggest titles to her trophy cabinet.
Vondrousova, who opens her United Cup campaign with an exciting clash against China’s Qinwen Zheng on 30 December, scored another big Grand Slam result with her US Open quarterfinal in 2023.
Her Wimbledon title highlights the current strength of Czech tennis, continuing a long line of success in the sport for the small central European nation.
And that’s not just individual success.
The Czech Republic – including the days of Czechoslovakia – are 11-time Billie Jean King Cup champions, three-time Davis Cup champions and three-time winners of the Hopman Cup.
Vondrousova and Lehecka will hope to lead their country to another victory in a prestigious team tennis competition. There’s every chance they might, considering their representative records.
Vondrousova owns a 13-2 overall record playing for Czech Republic at the Billie Jean King Cup. In one stretch from 2017 to 2023, she won 11 straight singles matches, plus two doubles rubbers, all in straight sets – a stunning record of 26 consecutive sets.
“It's very important for me to know that I can play good in those matches (for my country),” she said at November’s Finals in Seville. “I hope I can keep up with it here.”
She eventually lost in three sets to Leylah Fernandez in the semifinals, just her second loss in singles in the competition, and first in six years.
Lehecka was similarly dominant in Davis Cup play, building a 5-0 record in 2023 – and extending his unbeaten streak in singles to seven matches – before a narrow loss to Alex de Minaur in November’s quarterfinal in Malaga.
He also upset world No.12 Alexander Zverev at the United Cup in 2023, a performance which set the tone for a memorable month in Australia. A few weeks later, he reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Melbourne Park.
“I enjoyed my whole stay here in Australia,” he reflected. “I gained a lot of new experiences and a lot of new things, how to improve something, some stuff from which I can learn.”
Lehecka is even younger than Vondrousova, at just 22 years old.
Together, they represent a bright future for the sport, and could be among the more dangerous combinations at United Cup 2024.
