Tsitsipas leads Greek cast against Pinoy Davis Cuppers

Davis Cup

The Philippines is expected to get top-caliber opposition from Greece when they face off in their World Group II Davis Cup tie on March 6-7 at the clay courts of the Philippine Columbian Association in Paco, Manila.

Led by 6th-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas and his younger brother Petros, the Greeks' four nominated players are in its country's top-five ranked players in the ATP World Tour. Completing the quartet are Michail Pervolarakis and Markos Kalovelonis, with Dimitris Chatzinikolaou as the non-playing captain.

In contrast, the Filipinos will draw strength from three of its ranked players in the ATP World Tour in Jeson Patrombon, Eric Olivarez, Jr., and Francis Casey Alcantara. Completing the cast are AJ Lim and Ruben Gonzales, with Chris Cuarto acting as the non-playing captain.

Cuarto shares about the matchup, "We’re looking forward to a really tough duel but we’ll try to use the experience to toughen up the team."

He also adds about Tsitsipas, "He’s not the No. 6 player in the world if he isn’t great."

At 21 years old, he's the youngest netter in the top ten of the current ATP World Tour rankings. He is also just recently claimed his fifth ATP title in Marseille, and is currently seeking to add to that tally in the Middle East for the Dubai Duty Free Championships.

The Philippines-Greece matchup is the result of a tweak the Davis Cup made with its format, with these World Group II ties taking place simultaneous with the World Qualifiers and the World Group I playoffs. The twelve best teams in the World Group II playoffs face off in a few months against losing teams from the World Group I playoffs for the chance to potentially move up to Group I.

Group II playoff losers could potentially face the prospect of being relegated into Regional Group III play later this year.