MONETA Tennis extra league: RPM Praha advances from the preliminary round, Pardubice won the battle
The next year of the Czech MONETA Tennis Extraliga is starting! Although the main event will not take place until next week, two preliminary round matches are scheduled for Sunday. Progress to the semi-final group in Prague was won by the team RPM Spoj Praha, who beat TK Most 5:1. LTC Pardubice, who defeated TK Spartak Jihlava 5:4, advanced to the Prostejov semi-final group.
A total of eight teams will participate in this year’s MONETA Tennis Extraleague, the format remains the same as last year. V was first contested in the preliminary round, from where two teams advanced to the semi-final groups and completed certain participants of this year.
The Prague group consists of the teams TK Sparta Praha and I. ČLTK Praha, which were supplemented by the team RPM Spoje Praha from the preliminary round. The RPM players managed to beat TK Most in Sunday’s match 5:1 already after singles.
The difference between the two teams was mainly in the quality of the roster. On Sunday, Jesika Malečková, Jiří Jeníček, and foreign tennis players Matwe Middelkoop, Jekatěrina Alexandrová and Toby Alex Kodat took to the court for RPM Prague. All mentioned were able to win their singles matches. Only Matej Vocel failed, losing in two sets to Matyáš Černá.
The preliminary round in Prostějov was much more dramatic. The tennis players of LTC Pardubice and TK Spartaku Jihlava started the fight for the last place in the group, which includes TK AGROFERT Prostějov and TK Precheza Přerov.
Although Pardubice was already ahead 3:0 during the match and then 4:2, they did not manage to win the much-coveted fifth point for a long time. Dominik Kellovský fell in three sets against Patrik Homola and Vojtěch Vlkovský was not enough against Jacob Kahoun. Before the final two doubles (they won the first doubles match for Pardubice during the ongoing fight between Kellovský and Homola Wasserbauerová with Zálabská), Jihlava was able to reduce the score to 3:4.
In the end, Pardubice got the fifth point in the battle between Jaloviec and Kellovský and Kahoun and Páral. The more experienced pair of Jaloviec and Kellovský was able to win this doubles match 6:4, 6:1 and decided that Prostějov and Přerov will fill LTC Pardubice in the semi-final group.
The leading Czech tennis players will also go into battle
The tennis extra league continues with the first matches of the basic groups already on Monday. And this year too, we can find several very interesting names on the team lists.
I. ČLTK Prague can, for example, rely on a very strong female quartet of Tereza Martincová, Markéta Vondroušová, Karolína Muchová and Nikola Bartůňková. The list also includes Lucie Hradecká, who has already officially ended her career. Jiří Lehečka, Vít Kopřiva, Dalibor Svrčina will play for AGROFERT Prostějov, as well as this year’s biggest foreign star, world number 12 Belinda Bencicová.
The names Alex Molčan, Tomáš Macháč, Petra Kvitová and Kateřina Siniaková stand out the most on the roster of TK Sparta Praha. Precheza Přerov should be replaced by Linda Nosková, and on the list of RPM Spoj Praha, the name of world number 19 and winner of the Billie Jean King Cup from 2021, Yekatěrina Alexandrová, a Russian tennis player who has lived in the Czech Republic for a long time, shines the most.
You can view the complete preliminary rosters of all teams here.
You can watch the running score and video stream of the matches here.
The title from last year is defended by the TK AGROFERT Prostějov team.
Prague
Preliminary round: RPM Spoje Praha – TK Most 5:1
Jesika Malečková – Kristýna Hranáčová 6:1, 6:1
Matwe Middelkoop (NED) – John Pleva 6:4, 7:5
Yekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) – Nella Charvátová 6:1, 6:0
Jiří Jeníček – Matej Laibl 6:2, 6:1
Matej Vocel – Matyáš Černý 6:7, 5:7
Toby Alex Kodat (USA) – Mark Havlíček 5:7, 6:3, 6:4
Prostejov
Preliminary round: LTC Pardubice – TK Spartak Jihlava 5:4
Marek Jaloviec – Luboš Laštovička 7:5, 6:3
Zuzana Zálabská – Natálie Havlová 6:3, 6:0
Adéla Wasserbauerová – Klára Podškubková 7:6, 5:7, 4:6
Ondřej Kratochvíl – David Paral 5:7, 7:5, 6:4
Vojtěch Vlkovský – Jacob Kahoun 2:6, 6:3, 3:6
Dominik Kellovský – Patrik Homola 3:6, 7:6, 1:6
Wasserbauerová, Zálabská – Havlová, Podškubková 6:1, 6:3
Juniper, Kellovsky – Kahoun, Paral 6:4, 6:1
Kratochvíl, Vlkovský – Homola, Laštovička 5:4 scratch Kratochvíl, Vlkovský