2018 Davis Cup champions Croatia will face off against the winner of the India-Pakistan Davis Cup tie in the 2020 Davis Cup qualifier match.
India and Pakistan are set to square off in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on 29-30th November, with India likely to emerge victorious, after Pakistan’s top players, Aisam Qureshi and Aqeel Khan pulled out of the tie in protest of ITF’s decision to move the tie to a neutral venue. Pakistan have named two unranked 17 year olds to take on the strong Indian team.
In case India manage to overcome Pakistan, they will take on Croatia in Croatia on March 6-7, 2020 to secure a place in the Davis Cup Finals in November, 2020.
Croatia have two players in the top 40 in the ATP Rankings, namely Borna Coric(ATP 28) and former US Open champ Marin Cilic(ATP 39). They are expected to choose clay as the surface for the tie, a surface on which Indians have struggled traditionally.
India, on the other hand, have no players in the top 100. The top two players for India are – Prajnesh Gunneswaran(ATP 125) and Sumit Nagal(ATP 131).
In all, 24 nations will play off in March in traditional ‘home and away’ ties to decide which 12 go through to the finals in Madrid. They will join this year’s semi-finalists and two wildcards.
The 12 home and away ties will consist of four singles matches and one doubles match in best-of-three sets.
Davis Cup 2020 qualifiers:
Croatia (s) (c) v Pakistan/India
Hungary (c) v Belgium (s)
Colombia (c) v Argentina (s)
USA (s) (c) v Uzbekistan
Australia (s) (c) v Brazil
Italy (s) (c) v Korea, Rep.
Germany (s) (c) v Belarus
Kazakhstan (s) (c*) v Netherlands
Slovakia (c*) v Czech Republic (s)
Austria (s) (c) v Uruguay
Japan (s) (c*) v Ecuador
Sweden (s) (c) v Chile
(s) denotes seeded nation
(c) denotes choice of ground
(*) denotes choice of ground determined by lot
