Depth in the ranks has always been a signature of tennis in Czechia, a country of just 10 million people which has always punched above its weight on the world stage.
It will be no different at the United Cup in 2026, where the Czech team is headlined by a decorated Grand Slam champion and one of the men’s game’s fastest rising stars.
Barbora Krejcikova and Jakub Mensik will make a formidable pairing when they head to Sydney as one of the three countries drawn into Group D. And all eyes will be on them when they face Australia in a blockbuster at Ken Rosewall Arena, set for the evening of Tuesday 6 January.
Although the host country headlines the group as the fourth-seeded team, Team Czechia poses a significant threat as it looks to improve upon its semifinal finish in 2025, its best result in three United Cup campaigns.
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Boosting the Czech line-up are former top-50 player Linda Fruhvirtova, impressive doubles talent Adam Pavlasek, Dalibor Svrcina and Miriam Skoch.
Mensik is the highest-ranked of the lot, already a top-20 star before he turned 20 in September. His 2025 season started strongly in January’s Southern Hemisphere summer, with quarterfinals in Brisbane and Auckland preceding a third-round finish at the AO, where he upset No.6 seed Casper Ruud along the way.
Team Norway, led by Ruud, are also in Group D, meaning a rematch with Mensik awaits.
Yet Mensik truly turned heads with his run two months later at the Miami Masters, where he beat three top-10 stars – Indian Wells champion Jack Draper, American star Taylor Fritz and 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic – to win his first ATP title.
Ranked outside the top 50 at the time, the then-19-year-old soared to world No.24 after out-steadying Djokovic in a pair of tiebreaks during a compelling final.
“My game was getting better and better. Actually, winning tonight against Novak in the tiebreakers, it feels crazy, incredible,” said Mensik, who played through a knee injury en route to the title.
“I was watching him growing up. Because of him basically I started to play tennis. So it just feels incredible that I had the opportunity for a second time to play against him. And to beat him in this tournament in the finals… it was just a dream to win an ATP tournament, and even better that it's 1000 (smiling).
“Playing against Novak in the finals makes it more special.”
The story of injury is one familiar to Krejcikova. As Mensik was hoisting the biggest trophy of his burgeoning career, she was sidelined with a back injury and did not play her first match of the season until May.
It did not take her long to regain her form. In just her fourth tournament back, she reached the quarterfinals in Eastbourne, and then the third round at Wimbledon – where she was the defending champion – before running out of gas against Emma Navarro in a three-set battle.
“I was very much enjoying every match that I played here [at Wimbledon],” said Krejcikova, who also won the 2021 Roland Garros title. “I was enjoying me being on court, being able to play, being pain-free, having some good moments, having some tough situation, but overcoming them, enjoying all the atmosphere. I was also really enjoying the position that I was in.
“Unfortunately, yeah, it ended up this way, which is just very unfortunate and really sad and disappointing for me.”
She rebounded quickly, reaching the fourth round in Cincinnati, and her sixth Grand Slam quarterfinal at the US Open, before solid performances in Seoul and Beijing toward the end of the season.
Despite playing comparatively little tennis, she remained as dangerous as ever, going 15-5 from late June to late September and scoring three top-20 wins in that same period.
Mensik, who after Miami reached the Madrid Masters quarterfinals and Wimbledon third round, will no doubt benefit enormously from teaming with Krejcikova, a player almost 10 years his senior with a phenomenal representative career and doubles CV to boot.
His ascension in 2025, coupled with her resurgence, could prove perfectly timed with the United Cup beginning in just over two weeks.
