Tennis: Davis Cup opponents mystery to NZ squad

Ask New Zealand's Davis Cup players to tell all about their Davis Cup opponents this week and it would fill less than half the face of a racquet.

Kazakhstan arrived in Auckland yesterday, over 24 hours late - having missed a connection and had transit problems en route - for their tie at North Harbour starting tomorrow.

It is the Asia-Oceania zone, group two of the sport's premier teams event and it is a long way back to the halcyon days when New Zealand - courtesy of the talents of Onny Parun, Brian Fairlie, Russell and Jeff Simpson, Kelly Evernden and Brett Steven - had, or were perennially on the cusp of, world group status.

But New Zealand, who got into this situation with losses to India, Indonesia and Pakistan last year, should ease past a side which contains two players, Dmitri Makayev and Syrym Abdukhalikov , ranked about 1400, and whose leading player, 24-year-old Alexey Kedriouk, is No 426 and renowned as a racquet thrower.

For the geographically challenged, Kazakhstan borders the other Stans - Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrygzstan - along with Russia, Mongolia and China.

And for those none the wiser, New Zealand's players know just as little about the country's best tennis players. But that is a relatively minor issue for non-playing captain Bruce Derlin, whose focus is on developing the country's crop of bright young players.

"We don't know that much about them," he said yesterday. "We are not too concerned about what they're doing."

No 1 Mark Nielsen is in good form after the Futures circuit in New Zealand. By reaching the final of the Hamilton event last month, the North Harbour 27-year-old's world ranking is up to 543.

On paper, that ranking suggests a tough battle against Kedriouk but those who have seen both play maintain it should not be.

The rest of the New Zealand team comprises University of Illinois-based teenager GD Jones, 17-year-old Aucklander Rubin Statham - a late replacement for Dan King-Turner, who withdrew for personal reasons - and Wellington's Matt Prentice.

"We've got Mark as an anchor and he's played a lot of Davis Cup. He knows what it's about," Derlin said.

Derlin said the focus is on honing the New Zealand players' skills and getting them used to the Davis Cup mentality.

There is talk of a five-year plan to bring the younger crop up to speed, but Derlin knows it doesn't happen overnight.

The draw takes place in Takapuna today with opening singles tomorrow, doubles on Saturday and the reserve singles on Sunday.

Nielsen and Jones are tipped for the singles spots with Nielsen and Prentice to team up for the doubles.