Czech Republic will become only the sixth nation to hold the No. 1 position on the ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking after completing a 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas in Astana on Saturday. Lukas Rosol won the decisive point with a 76(5) 67(2) 76(5) 62 victory over Evgeny Korolev.

The new rankings will be issued on Monday 8 April, with Czech Republic climbing one place from its current position of No. 2. Spain, which has held the top spot for almost four years, will drop to No. 2.

The opening round of the 2013 Davis Cup that took place from 1st to 3rd February was quite an eventful one. It had it all. Records were broken, upsets were caused, comebacks were made and all in all the fans were able to see some spectacular tennis.

The first team to qualify to the quarterfinals was France who produced a dominating display against Israel to win 5-0. It was an extremely strong performance from the Frenchmen who were playing under first time captain, Arnaud Clement. They sealed the victory on Saturday with a day to spare with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet leading the way.

India went in to their Davis Cup tie against South Korea having only one of their first choice players in the form of multiple Grand Slam winner Leander Paes in the team. Following a dispute with AITA, 11 top Indian players refused to play in the tie including the likes of Somdev Devvarman, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. This forced India to field a second string side and left Paes to face the burden of carrying the country’s hopes alongside newcomers Virali-Murugesand Ranjeet and Vijayant Malik.

Consequently, India was on the back foot even before the tie took place and the considerably better South Korean side capitalised on this advantage to rout the Indians 4-1 in the Davis Cup and move on to the next stage.

The ITF, through its National Associations, will present further Davis Cup Commitment Awards during this weekend’s 2013 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas first round ties on Saturday 2 February.

This new award was conceived as part of the ITF’s 2013 Centenary celebrations, and will be presented to Davis Cup players who have shown long-standing dedication to representing their country in this prestigious competition. Each award recipient will have competed in a minimum of 20-home-and-away ties or 50 ties at any level of the competition (including Zone Group events) over their career.