Great Britain paired with Austria in Davis Cup playoffs
Wednesday, 16 Apr 2008 12:39
The All-England Club at Wimbledon could be the venue chosen
Great Britain have been drawn at home to Austria in the Davis Cup World Group playoffs to be played this September.
The draw was made at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) offices in London today, with the teams involved competing for a place in the elite group of nations in 2009.
Austria are ranked 15th in the world, six places higher than Great Britain, and are facing a fifth successive year in the World Group playoffs after a 4-1 loss to the USA in the first round in Vienna in February.
Their top singles players include Stefan Koubek (ranked 61 in the world), Jurgen Melzer (74) and Werner Eschauer (122), and the team is also likely to include doubles specialist Julian Knowle.
While Austria are likely to represent a stern test for Britain, the draw appears to have been kind.
Out of the eight seeded countries GB could have been paired with only Israel are lower in the world rankings than Austria.
The recent Davis Cup form of the central European country has been relatively poor, despite having one of the longest histories in the competition - taking part each year since 1905 - and reaching the semi-finals in 1990.
Britain's involvement in the relegation playoffs in 2008 was confirmed after the team suffered defeat in the first round of the competition to Argentina.
An under-strength squad, without top-ranked singles star Andy Murray who withdrew because of a fatigue-related injury, travelled to Buenos Aires and slumped to a 4-1 defeat.
However, GB expect to have Murray available for the playoff in the autumn and will be more confident of victory against the Austrians than they were against the South Americans.
The playoff will take place at a venue yet to be determined over the weekend of September 19th, 20th and 21st 2008, with the losers being relegated and consigned to the Group 1 competition next year.
Full draw for Davis Cup World Group playoffs:
(choice of venue indicated with (c), seeded team first)
Australia v Chile (c)
Austria v Great Britain (c)
Belgium v Switzerland (c)
Croatia (c) v Brazil
Israel (c) v Peru
Korea v Netherlands (c)
Romania (c) v India
Slovak Republic (c) v Serbia