The Czech Republic are set to make their 12th appearance at the 2017 Hopman Cup in Perth Arena, which has a seating capacity of 13 900, and they would be making their fourth straight appearance in Perth. Doubles specialists Lucie Hradecká would be the female representative for the Czech Republic, which competed as a part of the Czechoslovakia from 1989 till 1992. Whereas 22-year-old youngster Adam Pavlásek would be the male representative, making his second appearance at the Hopman Cup. They would be looking to create upsets as both are not ranked inside the top 50 of the singles rankings, which would be the first time ever that the Czech Republic has not fielded any top 50 ranked singles player at the annual team competition.
Czech Republic's history at the Hopman Cup
The Czech Republic team has had an 18-14 win-loss record at the Hopman Cup, with five of those 14 losses coming against the United States team alone. They were the champions on two different occasions in 1994 and 2012 respectively. Petr Korda and Jana Novotna proved their status as the top-seeded pairing by winning all their matches with a 2-1 scoreline to clinch a maiden title for the Czechs. Petra Kvitová and Tomas Berdych then flew the flag high up for the Czech Republic once again when they won the title in 2012 in a very impressive run that saw them win all the singles rubber.
The Czech Republic's last appearance was last year when they exited in the group stage of the tournament having finished second in their group despite having world number 11 Karolina Pliskova representing them and having the second-best combined ranking of both players among all the teams.
Underdogs hope to earn some wins
Lucie Hradecká and Adam Pavlásek are the lowest ranked pairing in the tournament as they have a combined ranking of 245, and naturally the fans would not expect much from them. Hradecká was initially not part of the line-up, but after Petra Kvitová was down with a foot injury and then suffering a serious hand injury in a home invasion, Hradecká replaced Kvitová to represent the Czechs.
After a career-best season in 2016 which saw him secure a position in the world's 100 best male players, Pavlásek would look to achieve more success in 2017 and he would be part of the Czech team in the Hopman Cup for the second time in his young career. In his only appearance here in Perth previously in 2015, he made an impression of himself when he successfully created a big upset after defeating the world number 20 Fabio Fognini as an unknown world number 239 for his first ever victory over a top 20 player and the best victory in terms of rankings of his career. Pavlásek managed to make his ATP World Tour maindraw debut at the 2016 Roland Garros and achieved more success on the tour when he reached his first ever quarterfinal on the ATP World Tour at the 2016 Generali Open Kitzbühel.
Lucie Hradecká has previously achieved success in singles, having reached a career-high ranking of 41 in June of 2011. Hradecká has also reached seven finals on the WTA Tour, but unfortunately, she lost all of them, failing to earn her first ever WTA title. Hradecká's best win in her career came recently though, a win over the fifth-ranked Serbian in Ana Ivanovic at the 2015 Australian Open as a qualifier ranked 141 in the world.
Despite being ranked number 53 in the world before this year's Australian Open, Hradecká's ranking dropped drastically as a consequence of a dull season with no outstanding results. As a result, Hradecká finished the year as the World number 166. Hradecká is the lowest-ranked singles player on the women's field, the only female player ranked outside of the top 100. Capable of an upset, Hradecká would look to start her season on a high at the Hopman Cup by clinching a win or two against the higher-ranked players.