Britain drawn against Ukraine in 2009 Davis Cup
Great Britain drawn at home to Ukraine in 2009 Davis Cup
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Tuesday, 23, Sep 2008 04:18
Great Britain have been drawn to play Ukraine at home in their first match back in the Euro/Africa Zone of the Davis Cup.
The group one quarter-final tie is scheduled to be played next May after the teams were drawn at the event in Madrid today.
The winner of the tie will go forward to compete in a World Group playoff in September, while the losers will be forced to play a relegation match later in the year.
Great Britain were relegated from the elite World Group on Sunday after losing 3-2 to Austria at Wimbledon's Number One court.
British number one Andy Murray, who is currently at a career-high number four in the world but remains a doubt for next year's team competition because of his burgeoning singles career, won both of his singles rubbers.
But he was ultimately let down by his team-mates - including elder brother and doubles specialist Jamie Murray and singles compatriot Alex Bogdanovic.
Bogdanovic is still without a meaningful victory in a Davis Cup rubber after losing to world number 40 Jurgen Melzer and world number 165 Alex Peya, despite being a set up early on in both matches.
And Jamie Murray partnered Ross Hutchins to doubles defeat against Melzer and Julien Knowle on Saturday.
The statistics suggest Ukraine are likely to pose a lesser threat than the Austrians did, with their highest-ranked singles player being world number 83 Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Ilia Marchenko (singles rank of 213), Sergei Bubka (285) and Ivan Sergeyev (336) could also feature for the away side.