Nadal-Berdych lead off Davis Cup final

BARCELONA, Spain, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- World No. 2 Rafael Nadal will go against the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych in the first match of the best-of-five Davis Cup final in Spain.

Nadal and his Spanish teammates will be looking to win a second consecutive -- and fourth since 2000 -- Davis Cup title while the Czechs are looking for a second title to go with their 1980 championship.

The Davis Cup final will be decided on an indoor red clay court in Barcelona, Spain.

That Nadal, coming off a second half of the year marked with injuries and an 0-3 performance at last week's ATP World Finals, was picked to lead off was expected, but Spanish team captain Alberto Costa surprised observers by picking 18th-ranked David Ferrer for the second singles match Friday over world No. 9 Fernando Verdasco.

Ferrer will go against world No. 12 Radek Stepanek on Friday. Berdych is ranked No. 20 in the world.

Saturday's schedule calls for doubles with Spain sending Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez against Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Hajek. While Dlouhy won doubles titles at the French and U.S. Opens this year, Hajek is relatively little known and the Czechs usually use Berdych and Stepanek for doubles.

Sunday features reverse singles with Nadal playing Stepanek and Ferrer going against Berdych.