Davis Cup lineup in question

The men's Davis Cup tennis team is dealing with unexpected controversy in the lead-up to its opening-round matches against Kazakhstan March 4-6 in Ostrava.

Veteran Jan Hernych, who was supposed to be a last-minute substitute for the ill Radek Štěpánek, turned down the invitation for financial reasons.

"I was offered $10,000 to play in the match, $7,000 if I was a member of the team and $2,500 if I did not make the four-player lineup in the end," the 31-year-old Hernych said. "When I first appeared on the team in 2005, I received a fixed amount of $10,000, regardless of whether I played. I thought it was better because I felt like a wanted team member."

Davis Cup Team Manager Jaroslav Navrátil criticized Hernych as wanting to take advantage of the personnel crisis on the team.

Leading players Tomáš Berdych and Radek Štěpánek reported health issues one week before the Davis Cup match-up in Ostrava. Berdych had to sit out because of a muscle strain from his semifinal match against Serbia's Novak Djoković in a Dubai tournament Feb. 25. Meanwhile, Štěpánek has been sick with the flu. While Berdych is expected to recover for the matches against Kazakhstan, Štěpánek will miss the games.

"I told Hernych that he wouldn't push us into the corner in a crisis," Navrátil said. "Playing on the national team is not about money."

Berdych and Štěpánek were the driving force en route to the Davis Cup Final in 2009 and helped power the team to the semifinals last year. The absence of either of the two players always creates major difficulties for the Czech team. At present, there doesn't appear to be any strong options for substitutes.

The four members playing against Kazakhstan include junior player Jiří Veselý, who won junior singles in the Australian Open in January, but he has never played a professional match on the ATP Tour.

Hernych has previously played three singles and one doubles match in the Davis Cup, losing all of them. Although he has faded on the ATP Tour, Hernych caught Navrátil's eye during the Australian Open, where he surprisingly made it to the third round before losing to the world's No. 4 player, Robin Soderling of Sweden.

Sparta falls short

Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt's header into the net with only four minutes remaining in Feb. 24's game at Anfield Road blew Sparta Praha's dream of upsetting the mighty English squad in the Europa League.

Having tied with Liverpool 0-0 one week before, Kuyt's goal made the difference between the two sides and knocked out the remaining Czech team in European competitions this season.

The Dutch forward nodded home an in-swinging corner from Raul Meireles in the 86th minute.

"It was a hard game, and we should have finished it off earlier, but at the end of the day, a win is all that counts," Kuyt said after the game.

Sparta surprisingly hung in for most of the game and even created some scoring opportunities of their own.

"They were a good, strong side, and it was a difficult game for us across two legs, but I thought we deserved to win," Liverpool Manager Kenny Dalglish said.

His Sparta counterpart, Jozef Chovanec, said his team could have had a chance in extra time.

"Aside from the result, we played very well, but it is very disappointing to concede a few minutes before the end," Chovanec said.

František Bouc can be reached at
fbouc@praguepost.com