John Isner kicks off Davis Cup quest against Slovakia's Norbert Gombos in Chicago

Isner won't have to face Novak Djokovic, as he did here in April, 2013 in Boise, Idaho. But the Slovaks remain worthy adversaries. (Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports)
Isner won't have to face Novak Djokovic, as he did here in April, 2013 in Boise, Idaho. But the Slovaks remain worthy adversaries. (Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports)

The draw for the U.S.A's Davis Cup playoff tie against Slovakia was made Thursday morning in Chicago. And American No. 1 John Isner will kick things off Friday in the first singles rubber against Slovak No. 2 Norbert Gombos. (5 p.m. ET Friday on Tennis Channel)

Isner is an experienced Davis Cup player and currently ranked No. 16, far from his career best of No. 9 but still head and shoulders above (pardon the pun) his 24-year-old Slovak opponent, who at No. 126 is just two spots off his career-best singles ranking.

It sounds fairly routine, doesn't it?

Gombos won just one match in four attempts at Grand Slam qualifying this season. He has never successfully qualified for the main draw at an ATP Tour event in his life. As recently as the spring of 2013, he was ranked in the 360s and playing at the lowly Futures level.

But here's the thing about Davis Cup: Gombos made his debut in service of his country in April when Slovakia played Austria in Bratislava. He faced Dominic Thiem, who is four years younger but much more highly-ranked and considered a star of the future. And Gombos defeated him in four sets.

"I think the think that jumps out is he beat Dominic Thiem in a live Davis Cup match this year. He has experience in Davis Cup. He's played a quality opponent and taken him out in a live match, so we know we'll have a challenge," captain Jim Courier said after the draw was made. "He's a fairly big guy. Hits a pretty big ball. We have fairly big guys that also hit fairly big balls. It will be competitive for sure. But if John does what John does well it becomes less about the opponents and more about what John's doing."

So you just never know. Gombos got the nod for singles over 26-year-old Lukas Lacko, who has a higher ranking, made his Davis Cup debut all the way back in 2006 and has performed well in Davis Cup in recent years.

After Isner, American No. 2 Sam Querrey will play Slovak No. 1 Martin Klizan, currently ranked No. 57 and the winner of an ATP Tour event in Munich, Germany in May out of the qualifying. He defeated three top-20 players on his way to that title: Tommy Haas, Mikhail Youzhny and Fabio Fognini in the final. Klizan withdrew from a pair of tournaments in July with a left wrist injury but appeared on his way to victory in the second round of the U.S. Open against No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych before bowing out in five sets.

In other words, both Slovaks can play. Querrey said he knows Klizan well.

"Yeah, I mean, I practiced with Martin a ton. He's a great player himself. It's always difficult playing a lefty. It's kind of like what Jim and John just said; I'm going to worry about my game and what I can do well and hope that works out tomorrow evening," Querrey said.

Isner played a jam-packed summer schedule: Newport on grass, Atlanta (which he won), Washington, D.C., Toronto, Cincinnati, Winston-Salem and then the U.S. Open, where he lost in four sets to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and, uncharacteristically, lost all three tiebreaks played in that match.

Querrey, ever the enigma, is as close to the top 50 as he has been since last January. But he's still not in the top 50. The 26-year-old had some good wins at the small event in Winston-Salem the week before the U.S. Open, but managed just seven games in a loss to a depleted Novak Djokovic in the third round in New York.

Andy Murray shakes hands Sam Querrey after beating him in Davis Cup in February in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
Andy Murray shakes hands Sam Querrey after beating him in Davis Cup in February in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

He is 4-8 in singles in Davis Cup - 1-7 on clay, 3-1 on hard courts. But Querrey lost both his matches in the first-round tie between the U.S. and Great Britain in February in San Diego that put them in the position of having to win this playoff tie, to stay in the World Group. Losing to Andy Murray was no shame, but Querrey also lost to James Ward.

On Saturday (3 p.m. ET), the U.S. Open champion Bryan brothers are a virtual lock, regardless of whom the Slovaks align to play doubles. The lineup at the moment is Lacko and doubles specialist Michal Mertinak.

Unless the Americans can clinch it with the doubles, it could come down to a battle of the No. 1s, Isner vs. Klizan, in the Sunday reverse singles, which start at 1:30 p.m. ET.

The winning squad will compete in the 16-country World Group in 2015. The loser will be demoted to zonal competition, which for the Americans can often mean slogging through the clay-courts of Venezuela, Ecuador or Uruguay in a quest to get back to the top level.

That's definitely not where they want to be next year.