STOCKHOLM, September 14, 2019

Sweden secured their place in the 2020 Davis Cup by Rakuten Qualifier with a 3-1 win over Israel in the Davis Cup Europe-Africa Group I tie in Stockholm. Mikael Ymer gave the hosts an unassailable lead in the best-of-five series on indoor hard-court at Royal Tennis Club.

Ymer fought past Daniel Cukierman, who appeared in his first Davis Cup match, in the first reverse singles rubber on Saturday, winning 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 15 minutes.

And there we have it! @MikaelYmer defeats Daniel Cukierman to give Sweden a 3-1 lead in their tie with Israel

The win now means that Sweden 🇸🇪 have booked their spot at the 2020 Davis Cup by Rakuten Qualifiers #DavisCup #DavisCupQualifiers pic.twitter.com/7SkjzIaYUK

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 14, 2019

“I’m very happy with my performances, but I wouldn’t consider myself a hero, this was a team effort. Everybody did very well. I’m very proud of the team, I’m very proud for Sweden,” Ymer said.

Earlier in the day, Cukierman and Jonathan Erlich gained their first point for Israel by securing a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Markus Eriksson and Andre Goransson in the doubles rubber. An almost flawless match for the Israeli lasted only 56 minutes.

Swedish captain Johan Hedsberg said he was very happy with the outcome.

“The Israeli doubles team were a little too good for us today, they were so good, but Mikael is very dynamic and even though it was a late change and we didn’t know anything about (Cukierman) we just told him to just look for the little things that will make the difference. Mikael is a clever player and he’s in good form so he needed to play chess a little and he could keep a cool head against an opponent who was really, really good.”

Photo Gallery (by Brigitte Urban)