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 young Lithuanian players are winning the greatest tennis victories in the history of Lithuania. As expected, this led to the increasing popularity of tennis in the country. Now, Lithuania has a few very high quality players.
In 2012 Lithuania competed in the third group of Davis Cup, where they won all three ties and got promoted to the second group. It played seven times there. Also, it has competed in the third group for 13 times. And once have been promoted to group one, where Lithuania team is currently playing.
Current team (2015)
Player information and rankings as of 8March2015[update]
Squad representing Lithuania vs. Poland (2015 Europe/Africa Group 1 First Round)
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 the 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 Otočec to play against Slovenia. However, the Slovenian team with Grega Žemlja and Blaž Kavčič was too strong for Lithuania, which won only one set in five matches, and the tie ended 0–5.[5][6]
In 2010 Lithuania had its better performance. For the first round match-up Lithuania drew the top seeded British team in Lithuania. With James Ward defeating Laurynas Grigelis, Great Britain winning the doubles match and Berankis winning both of his singles matches the tie came to the decisive rubber. Grigelis won a five-setter against Daniel Evans[7] and against all odds Lithuania celebrated a 3–2[8] victory over Great Britain.[9][10] Lithuania's next round was against Irish team led by Conor Niland and James McGee in Dublin. Lithuania celebrated after the second day when Berankis and Grigelis won the first three matches and secured the tie.[11] Ireland won the remaining dead rubbers with Lithuania winning the tie 3–2.[12][13] 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 Berankis and Grigelis represented Lithuania in all five matches but they won 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 losing 2–3[14] and Slovenia was promoted to the first group.[15]
Lithuania came into the 2011 Davis Cup with high hopes but the dreams were crashed in the first round tie against Estonia in Tallinn. During the second rubber Grigelis got a knee injury and not only lost the match but also had to skip the remaining tie.[16] Grigelis was replaced by Dovydas Šakinis who was still recovering from pneumonia so couldn't play his best tennis. Although Berankis won both of his singles matches,[17] Lithuania lost the tie 2–3.[18][19] The fourth rubber between Berankis and Jürgen Zopp took 3 hours 46 minutes and it was the longest rubber for both teams in their histories. After the first round loss Lithuania faced a relegation play-off against Morocco in Vilnius, where neither Berankis[20] nor Grigelis[21] helped Lithuania. The Lithuanian team, with only one ranked player and all players being under 19, lost to Morocco 0-5[22][23] which led to the relegation to the third group for the following year.
In 2012, Lithuania was competing in Group III. In the group stage Lithuania defeated Andorra and San Marino without losing a set. For the promotion play-off Lithuania faced the Greek team. In the first rubber Grigelis lost a tough match to Theodoros Angelinos but Berankis restored the parity by defeating Paris Gemouchidis. In the decisive rubber, Lithuanian leaders won a doubles match and the tie ended 2–1. Lithuania got promoted to the Group II for the following year.[24]
In 2014 Lithuania team defeated South Africa, Norway and Bosnia and Herzegovina and was promoted to Europe/Africa Zone Group I for the first time in 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
10 (20 September 2021)
