New Zealand Davis Cup Teamed Named To Take On Jamaica

New Zealand captain Artem Sitak has named a largely unchanged line-up for the Davis Cup World Group 2 Play-Off tie, to be held in Kingston on 2 & 3 February NZ time. The one change to the side sees debutant Alex Klintcharov called up, replacing recently retired Davis Cup stalwart Rubin Statham. Klintcharov joins KP Pannu, Ajeet Rai, Jack Loutit and Finn Reynolds, who will be looking to secure their place in World Group 2 for the next round of ties in September with a win in Kingston.

“We have a strong team and a good variety of players, depending on the conditions and opposition, we have different styles of players we can select.” Said Sitak. He mentioned Klintcharov as deserving of his chance to impress in national colours. “Alex has been steadily rising throughout the year and deserves his chance to show what he can do at the Davis Cup level. He has a big serve, a big game and is very fit, which going into the heat of Jamaica is very important.” He said.

The Jamaican team includes their top singles player Blaise Blicknell, who picked up at ATP Challenger tour singles title last year and was climbing in the world rankings to a best of number 306, but has been injured since July. The Davis Cup tie will see his return to top level action since his injury break.

“He (Blicknell) is very strong, he had some good wins and was climbing up the rankings fast last year, but got injured mid-year and this is his first match back, we’ve got to expect he will be very strong given the level he was at last year.” Said Sitak. Limited information is available on the rest of the Jamaican side but a loud and vibrant home crowd is expected. “Playing away is always tougher, I’ve seen some footage of past Jamaican home ties and it looked like a full crowd and very loud so that’s always difficult, but we’re up for the challenge. We’re going to have a full 7 to 8 days as a team together, preparing in the conditions, on the match courts and with the balls we’ll be using for the tie, this is a great way to prepare and we’ll definitely be ready to go when the matches start.” He said.

The tie will take place at the Eric Bell National Tennis Centre, Kingston on hard courts, with matches to start from 5am NZT on Sunday 2nd Feb & Monday 3rd Feb (Saturday and Sunday local time). Live scoring will be available via Daviscup.com with daily results wraps published by Tennis NZ. The tie is a best of 5 matches, with two singles matches on day 1, and doubles followed by reverse singles on day 2. The winners remain in World Group 2 and will contest a home or away tie in September against a losing team from the World Group 1 Play Offs, whilst the losing side will drop to contest a Group 3 regional event later this year.

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