Kazakhstan's Davis Cup squad could be forgiven for looking a shade bleary-eyed yesterday.
It had taken 22 hours' flying to get to Auckland, including an unexpected extra day's stopover in Dubai. There were visa problems, they lost one player, Maxim Filippov, on the way for reasons not exactly made clearyesterday.
Plonked at a table for a press conference, the questions were directed to No 1 player Alexey Kedriouk, whose English is apparently the best of the bunch. Then things became a touch Pythonish.
Asked how he viewed Kazakhstan's chances Kedriouk said: "We want to win because our team ... " then conversed with No 2 player Dmitri Makayev on his left for a few moments, before Makayev said: "We try to do our best." Before Kedriouk finished the sentence: "We will see tomorrow."
They are also Kazakhstan's double act at North Harbour Tennis Park tomorrow.
Kedriouk thought he had played New Zealand No 1 Mark Nielsen in Uzbekistan a couple of years ago, then later remembered he hadn't. Put it down to tiredness.
He said the North Harbour indoor hardcourt is fine, the team having had about 90 minutes' workout on it. Is it his favourite surface? A pause, then Makayev piped up: "All courts," presumably backing his mate as a player who likes all surfaces.
Tennis apparently has a big appeal in Kazakhstan, which has a population in excess of 15 million and occupies a chunk of land about four times the size of Texas.
"We have many courts," Kedriouk added. "It's very popular. We have many players, under 18 and under 16. And our president [Nursultan Nazarbayev] plays."
Non-playing captain Ivan Tsymbalov explained that after Kedriouk the next best players, Dias Doskaraev and his son Anton Tsymbalov, are studying at American universities and were unavailable.
It sounded a bit like getting his excuses in first. So here's one on their behalf: back home it's about minus 10C. Forget transit problems, long flights and weary bodies. Auckland must seem a different world.
