Flawless Exhibition before the Finals

06.06.2015 13:57:03 | The Czech-Slovak doubles exhibition match featuring Jiří Novák, Karel Nováček, Miloš Mečíř, and Karol Kučera was a perfect “foreplay” of the UniCredit Czech Open finals. Of course, the result did not really matter and the full AGROFERT Arena must have really enjoyed the show.

“It’s always nice to meet your friends who achieved great results in their times. It was our pleasure to show something from our former tennis expertise and skills,” said Jiří Novák after spectacular performance.

Who was playing? Miloš Mečíř is the gold medallist in singles and the bronze medallist in doubles (with Šrejbr) from the Olympic Games in Soul in 1988. He’s won 10 ATP titles in singles and 9 in doubles. He was a runner-up in two grand-slam finals (US Open 1986, Australian Open 1989) in which he always lost to Ivan Lendl. He played with wooden rackets all his career and his graceful footwork earned him the nickname "The Big Cat". He coached Karol Kučera and helped him to reach the 6^th place in ATP.

Karol Kučera is a former Slovak professional player and a long-term Davis Cup representative. He ended his professional career after representing Slovakia in the Davis Cup finals against Croatia in 2005. At his peak, he was a top-ten player in singles and his best ranking was the 6^th place in ATP (September 14, 1998). He represented his country at three Olympic Games in Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), and Athens (2004). He achieved his best result at the Australian Open in 1998 after defeating the defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals. However, he lost to the later champion Petr Korda of the Czech Republic in the semi-finals. 

Karel Nováček was one of the most famous Czechoslovak tennis players a great fighter who celebrated his fiftieth birthday this March. He has won twelve ATP tournaments, eight of them on clay. He reached the singles semi-finals at US Open in 1994. He has played the singles finals seven times and won three titles in doubles. He won his first tournament in 1986 in Washington and his last tournament in Hilversum eight years later. He was the eighth player in ATP on November 18, 1991 and played great matches in Davis Cup.

Jiří Novák is a former Czech professional player and a tennis coach. During his active career he won seven ATP tournaments in singles and eighteen in doubles. He was the highest ranking Czech player in ATP for six years and reached the 5^th place in ATP (October 21^st, 2002). His favourite surface was clay. Yet still, he surprisingly beat Roger Federer of Switzerland in the first round at Wimbledon in 1999. Until February 2015, he was the only tennis player in the world who had defeated Rafael Nadal of Spain in Davis Cup singles. He beat him in the first round of the World Group in Brno in 2004. The Czech Republic eventually lost to Spain 2:3.