Israel - Ukraine Davis Cup matches to be held in Cyprus due to war situation

Cyprus will host the Davis Cup World Cup matches between Israel and Ukraine on 13 and 14 September. The matches will take place at the Herodotou Academy facilities in Larnaca.

Approximately 100 credentials will be issued for spectators, most of which for Israelis and Ukrainians, while the public will not be allowed entry for security reasons.

According to a press release issued by the Cyprus Tennis Federation, the draw for the games had the two European countries entangled in war playing against each other, with Israel drawn as the home team.

It is added that the ongoing war situation in the country forced the decision makers of the Israeli Tennis Federation to look for a venue where their team would play the matches, with the Israeli side contacting the Cyprus Tennis Federation, which in turn consulted with all the relevant ministries and departments of the Republic of Cyprus, so that approval could be given and the conditions required to hold the meeting in Cyprus could be ensured.

Following this approval, it is noted, the relevant officials of the Israeli Federation visited Cyprus about three months ago and inspected the facilities on offer, choosing to hold the meeting at the Herodotou Academy in Larnaca.

As a result, the Academy will host Davis Cup matches (it has been the home of the Cyprus National Team several times in the recent past), which this time will be upgraded as the matches will be held under the ITF World Federation's standards for Category 1.

The delegations of the two teams arrived in Larnaca on Tuesday and have already held their first training sessions at the Academy. The draw of the five-match series will take place on Thursday, September 12 at a central hotel in Larnaca. The matches will be played on Friday and Saturday, starting at 16.00 and finishing late in the evening.

The games will be televised directly to Israel, and an Israeli television crew has arrived to Cyprus for this purpose.

On paper, the Ukrainians seem to have a slight edge, as the entire team's tennis players have a better world ranking than the Israelis, but the differences are small and competitive matches are expected, the press release noted.

The two teams have the following line-ups (in brackets the world ranking of each player in Singles and Doubles):

ISRAEL : OLIEL Yshai (463/1065), CUKIERMAN Daniel (508/174), KIMHI Orel (611/1172), VALES Amit (975/1651), STEPANOV Roy ( / 301). Captain ERLICH Jonathan.

UKRAINE : SACHKO Vitaliy (386/208), OVCHARENKO Oleksandr (416/527), KRUTYKH Oleksii (493/1083), ORLOV Vladyslav (560/267), BELOBORODKO Illia (1026/795). Captain TERESHCHUK Orest.

(Source: CNA)