Munar Steps Up Big, Spain Through To Davis Cup Final 8 Semifinals

Jaume Munar
Jaume Munar (photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images for ITF)

BOLOGNA/WASHINGTON, November 20, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

Spain’s Jaume Munar was given some very big shoes to fill, after World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from this week’s Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna due to a muscle edema injury suffered at the Nitto ATP Finals. Without Alcaraz to anchor the Spanish armada at No. 1 singles, it meant that the 36th-ranked Munar would be elevated from No. 2 to No. 1 singles when Spain met Czechia in a quarterfinal-round tie at SuperTennis Arena Thursday afternoon. All the while, Munar had never before won a Davis Cup singles rubber.

After failing at this stage last year, Spain was bidding to reach the semifinals for the first time since they won their sixth Davis Cup title in 2019. A 10th meeting for Spain and Czechia and their third in consecutive years, the Spanish brought a 5-4 advantage in their head-to-head to Bologna.

With his team trailing 1-0, after No. 89 Pablo Carreño Busta of Spain dropped the opening rubber to Czechia’s 19th-ranked Jakub Mensik, 7-5, 6-4, behind 20 aces and 43 winners, it meant that Munar would have to go big or go home to Mallorca for the off-season. 

The 28-year-old Spaniard gave his team hope after he broke the serve of No. 17 Jiri Lehecka to go ahead 4-2 in an opening set he would go on to win 6-3. Then, Munar broke the Czechia No. 1 in the opening game of the second set and maintained the break lead the rest of the way.

By the end, Munar had lifted the Spanish to a 1-1 tie after beating Lehecka for the first time in three career meetings, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour and 22 minutes. He outpointed his opponent 59-48 and took advantage of 19 unforced errors and 27 forced errors by Lehecka.

Munar struck two of his five aces with the rubber on the line in the final game and won with a service winner. He was simply too much for Lehecka. Munar stepped up for his country when it mattered most and garnered his first-ever win in Davis Cup singles.

“I am proud of myself and I am also very proud of everyone on the team,” Munar said during his on-court interview. “I enjoy a lot playing team matches. Of course, Davis Cup means a lot to me. I’m super happy and thankful to be a part of this great national team we have with so [much] history behind.”

Munar said Spain’s team captain, David Ferrer, told him after Carreño Busta’s loss to “keep going, keep building, try to do your best and take it point by point. 

“This is Davis Cup. Anything can happen. I thought I had a real chance before the match because I’m playing great, finishing the season playing my best tennis.”

Now, for the first time in three days, a quarterfinal knockout tie would be decided by doubles, where Spain would put up World No. 6 Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez against Czechia’s Mensik and Tomas Machac.

Granollers, who won titles at Roland-Garros and the US Open this season paired with Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos, was part of Spain’s 2019 Davis Cup championship team. He used his Davis Cup experience in the deciding rubber, along with the calmness exuded by Martinez, to help guide the Spaniards through two tough tie breaks. Together, they proved to be a winning combination as the Spanish duo pulled out a 7-6 (8), 7-6 (8) victory in two hours and three minutes. 

Granollers and Martinez saved a couple of set points during the first-set tie-break and remained steady as they went on to grab a second tie-break after saving two set points. The Spaniards secured the victory on their second match-point opportunity after Mensik double-faulted.

The victory lifted Spain into their first Davis Cup semifinal since 2019. On Saturday, they will face either Argentina or Germany, who met later Thursday.

During his post-tie news conference, Ferrer said he was proud of the fight his team showed against Czechia.

“I’m very proud of my players. They compete two singles and the doubles. They play really good. Yeah, happy for them because now we are in [the]semifinal[s]. Now it’s time to enjoy tonight, and tomorrow we’ll see against who we’re going to play,” he said.

Davis Cup news & noteworthy

After Italy ended Austria’s Davis Cup run with a 2-0 shutout in the quarterfinal round Wednesday, Austrian team captain Jürgen Melzer looked for positives when he discussed the tie with media afterward.

“Well, you obviously try to prepare them that they know what’s coming. In the end, if you haven’t experienced that before in your life, in the beginning definitely overwhelming,” Melzer said.

“But I felt like the crowd was not really the issue today. First of all, it’s a very fair crowd. Was a great atmosphere on the court. It has been two completely different matches. The last one was unfortunately very one-sided. The first one I think was a very good match from both players. Just decided by a couple of points.”

In the first match of the tie, Matteo Berrettini defeated Jurij Rodionov, 6-3, 7-6 (4), and Flavio Cobolli won the second match for Italy over Filip Misolic, 6-1, 6-3.

“We knew going into today that probably the better shot to win a match was the first one, if you talk about matchups, you talk about how two game styles are on one court,” Melzer said. “The thing is that he didn’t do a lot of things wrong today apart from one service game in the second set where you could see, okay, the nerves got to him a little bit.

“In the end he had three set points. Matteo came up with five big serves, four of them were over 215. That’s also class. That shows why he’s there, why he was where he was. But definitely if we go into a third set, I think momentum shifts, Jurij starts to believe more. Who knows who would have won that match. I think he would have deserved to win the second set.”

Melzer was asked what he would take from this year’s quarterfinal experience looking ahead to 2026. He said: “Well, I think we as a tennis nation should take a lot of positives from this year. We have been playing against way better nations, if you just look at the rankings.

“We fought as a team. We fought as one. We got to the Final 8 in a very tough sport if you look at how many people, how many countries are involved in that competition. Being a small country like Austria, having a chance to play in the Final 8 is great. We take a lot of confidence from that.

“It also helps we’re going to be seeded for the draw for next year. That always helps. We still need a good draw.”

Thursday’s Davis Cup results

Friday’s Davis Cup schedule

By the numbers

Thursday’s Spain-Czechia tie was the 10th Davis Cup meeting between the two nations and their third in consecutive years. Czechia defeated Spain 3-0 in Group C of the Finals in 2023 before Spain reversed the result to win 3-0 in Finals Group B last year. With their latest victory, Spain leads 6-4 in the head-to-head, including leading 4-2 in the nations’ meetings since 2000.

“Quotable …”

“Today I was not the better player. That’s the reason why I lost. He was playing very well.”

– Jiri Lehecka of Czechia, during his post-match news conference conference, after losing to Spain’s Jaume Munar.

 

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