{"id":897180,"date":"2026-09-19T01:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897180\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T01:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:20:12","slug":"davis-cup-news-2026-usa-v-czech-republic-result-ben-shelton-loss-comments-australias-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897180\/","title":{"rendered":"Davis Cup news 2026 | USA v Czech Republic result, Ben Shelton loss, comments; Australia\u2019s schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Open<\/a> finalist Ben Shelton struggled to dominate with his serve and was beaten in straight sets by Jiri Lehecka as the Czech Republic drew level 1-1 with the United States in the last qualifying round for the Davis Cup<\/a> Final 8.<\/p>\n

Lehecka broke Shelton\u2019s serve early in each set on the indoor hard court at Prague\u2019s O2 Arena, eventually going on to win 6-4, 6-4.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton reacts after losing to Jiri Lehecka.\u00a0Getty Images for World Tennis<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he played a great match. A lot of credit to him. He outplayed me today,\u201d Shelton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe served great, returned great, volleyed well. Played well from the baseline. There were no real holes in his game, and he definitely deserved to win that match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Learner Tien beat Jakub Mensik 6-2, 6-4 in his Davis Cup debut to give the 32-time champion Americans a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Tien had only 15 unforced errors to Mensik\u2019s 34.<\/p>\n

Shelton, who is up to a career-high No. 4 in the rankings after his US Open run, dropped to 0-3 for his career in the Davis Cup.<\/p>\n

In his only previous action in the competition, he lost both singles and doubles matches with partner Tommy Paul as the US was beaten by Australia in the 2024 quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

The winning team advances to the Final 8 in Bologna, Italy, in November.<\/p>\n

It was Shelton\u2019s first match since losing to Alexander Zverev in New York<\/a> in his first Grand Slam final.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, South Korea moved within one victory of becoming the first Asian nation to reach the Final 8 after taking a 2-0 lead over India.<\/p>\n

The South Koreans came from a set down in both matches.<\/p>\n

Kwon Soon-woo beat Dhakshineswar Suresh 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and then Hyeon Chung defeated Sumit Nagal 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 at Seoul’s Olympic tennis center.<\/p>\n

Austria and Belgium were tied 1-1.<\/p>\n

The other match-ups of teams competing for spots to join host and three-time defending champion Italy at the finals are: Chile and Spain; Germany and Croatia; Britain and Ecuador; and Canada and France.<\/p>\n

Zverev is scheduled to play for Germany, which hosts Croatia in Halle on Saturday and Sunday. Australia will take on Poland this weekend, also. <\/p>\n

The Final 8 format was introduced in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Open finalist Ben Shelton struggled to dominate with his serve and was beaten in straight sets by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-897180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}