Davis Cup Team Ready For Taiwan This Weekend

The 2XU Compression New Zealand Davis Cup tennis team is ready and waiting for their Asia/Oceania Group I Relegation Playoff clash against Taiwan this weekend.

With so much riding on the result of the tie to be played in the city of Kaohsiung, Taipei the New Zealand non-playing captain, Marcel Vos knows the significance of preparation and has had his players at the venue since Monday set for the task which lies ahead.

"Obviously it’s a very important relegation tie for us. We are very keen to stay in Group I after getting promoted two years ago,” says Vos.

“On paper we are probably underdog as they are at home and have slightly higher ranked players, but we like the fast courts here and I expect all matches to be closely contested ones again, just as they were last month versus India. We are ready for another big effort and are preparing as well as possible so we can play our best tennis on the day. All the players in the team are fit and we are confident we can handle the hot and humid conditions this weekend.”

 

The New Zealand team is the same side which played India last month with Rubin Statham ranked at 323 in singles and 216 in doubles. Dan King-Turner has an ATP singles rank of 357 and 311 in doubles. Michael Venus is 652 and 368, while Artem Sitak sits at 751 and 376.

"Dan has been successful at this venue earlier in the year, beating a few highly ranked players, so that will give us some confidence going in as well. However there’s always lots of variables in Davis Cup, but hopefully things will go our way this time and we can come out on top at the end of the weekend. Australia, Japan, Uzbekistan, and India will all be in a full Group I draw again next year and the guys will give it everything to pull off the win this weekend so we can join them 2013,” says Vos.

The Taipei team is missing it’s top 100 ranked player Yen-Hsun Lu and their top 200 ranked Jimmy Wang as well. Their team is top 300 ranked players Ti Chen and Tsung-Hua Yang along with Liang-Chi Huang and doubles specialist Cheng-Peng Hsieh.

New Zealand has a 3-0 overall record against Taiwan in Davis Cup. The loser of this tie will play Lebanon in the first round of Asia/Oceania Zone Group II in 2013. The winner will await the outcome of the draw for next year's Asia/Oceania Zone Group I.

Details:

NZ v Chinese Taipei Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Group I Relegation Playoff
Kaohsiung City, Taipei, Kaohsiung Yangming Tennis Courts, hardcourt, outdoors.
19-21 October

2XU Compression New Zealand team:
Rubin Statham, Dan King-Turner, Michael Venus, Artem Sitak, Marcel Vos (non-playing captain).