Lithuania Davis Cup team

The Lithuania Davis Cup team represents Lithuania in Davis Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Lithuanian Tennis Association.

Lithuania has never been a tennis country – no tennis player from Lithuania entered ATP top 500 until 2008. However, the situation is changing in recent years. Currently two Lithuanians are in the top 200 and they are winning the greatest tennis victories in the history of Lithuania. As expected, this led to the increasing popularity of tennis in the country.

In 2012 Lithuania will compete in the third group for the 13th time in its history, it has also competed in the second group for 6 years and has never been promoted to the first group.

Team 2011

Rankings as of January 2, 2012.

History

Lithuania started its Davis Cup history in 1994 with competing in the Europe and Africa zone of Group III.

Present

Lithuania started 2009 Davis Cup with their first ever victory in Group II. In the first round Lithuania defeated Georgia 3–2^[1] in front of a home crowd in a recently built SEB arena. All work was done by the youngest members of Lithuanian team – 18 year old Ričardas Berankis won both of his singles matches^[2][3] and 16 year old Dovydas Šakinis defeated the leader of Georgian team Irakli Labadze in the decisive rubber.^[4] For the second round match-up, Lithuania went to Otocec to play against Slovenia. However, the Slovenian team with Grega Žemlja and Blaž Kavčič was too strong for Lithuania, which managed to win only one set in five matches, and the tie ended 0–5.^[5][6]

In 2010 Davis Cup Lithuania had its best performance ever. Lithuania drew Great Britain in Lithuania for the first round match-up and since Lithuania had only one player in top 500 the British team were clear favorites. But not all British top players came to Vilnius – Andy Murray chose to skip this round of Davis Cup^[7] and Jamie Baker got injured while preparing for the tie.^[8] With Great Britain winning the doubles match, James Ward defeating Laurynas Grigelis and Ričardas Berankis winning both of his singles matches against Daniel Evans and James Ward the tie came to the decisive rubber. In five sets Laurynas Grigelis defeated Daniel Evans^[9] and Lithuania celebrated a 3–2^[10] victory over Great Britain.^[11][12] Lithuania's next round was against Irish team led by Conor Niland and James McGee in Dublin. Lithuania celebrated after the second day when Ričardas Berankis and Laurynas Grigelis won the first three matches and secured the tie.^[13] Ireland managed to win the remaining dead rubbers with Lithuania winning the tie 3–2.^[14][15] In the third round Lithuania had a rematch of last year's tie against Slovenia, only this time Slovenian team came to Vilnius. The best two Lithuanian tennis players Ričardas Berankis and Laurynas Grigelis represented Lithuania in all five matches of the tie but they managed to win only two of them – Berankis defeated Blaž Kavčič in the first rubber and Lithuania came back from two sets to love down in the doubles match. Eventually, Lithuania ended up loosing 2–3^[16] and Slovenia was promoted to the first group.^[17]

After the successful year with wins over Great Britain and Ireland, Lithuania came into the 2011 Davis Cup with high hopes. But the dreams were crashed in the first round tie against Estonia in Tallinn. Ričardas Berankis won the first rubber against Jaak Poldma but the second rubber could not have been any worse for Lithuania – Laurynas Grigelis got a knee injury and not only lost the match but also had to skip the remaining tie. Grigelis was replaced by Dovydas Šakinis who was still recovering from phneumonia so couldn't play his best tennis. Although Berankis won both of his singles matches,^[18] Lithuania lost the tie 2–3.^[19][20] Moreover, it wasn't the end of bad news for the Lithuanian team. Berankis had a flight to the tournament in Indian Wells on the same day as the last match was scheduled and since the match against Jurgen Zopp was unexpectedly long (it took 3 hours 46 minutes) Berankis didn't have enough time for the after-match procedures, which resulted in back spasms and retirement in Indian Wells Masters.^[21][22] After the first round loss Lithuania faced a relegation play-off against Morocco in Vilnius, where neither Ričardas Berankis^[23] nor Laurynas Grigelis^[24] helped Lithuania. The Lithuanian team, with only one ranked player and all players being under 19, lost to Morocco 0-5^[25][26] which led to the relegation to the third group for the following year.

In 2012 Lithuania will compete in the Europe Zone of Group III. All matches of this group will be played on 2–5 May on an outdoor clay court in Sophia, Bulgaria.^[27]

Statistics

• Total record 41–32 (56%)

Head-to-head record

Group record

• Europe/Africa zone group II 3–10 (23%)
• Europe/Africa zone group III 38–22 (63%)

Home and away record

Group II:

• Performance in Lithuania 2–6 (25%)
• Performance away 1–4 (20%)

Group III:

• Performance in Lithuania 2–2 (50%)
• Performance away 36–20 (61%)

Surface record

• Carpet court 3–5 (38%)
• Clay court 27–22 (55%)
• Grass court 0–0 (-%)
• Hardcourt 11–5 (69%)

Statistics updated after 2011 season.

All players

Updated: January 2, 2012.

Results

1994–1999

2000–2009

2010–

See also

• Davis Cup
• Lithuania Fed Cup team

External links

• Team page on DavisCup.com

References