Tennis: New captain determined to return to Cup zone one

New Davis Cup captain James Greenhalgh is determined to see New Zealand return to zone one of the Asia Oceania region but at this stage is reluctant to look further than first- round opponents Lebanon.

Greenhalgh replaced Bruce Derlin as captain after New Zealand's loss to Korea last September which saw them relegated to zone two.

The Davis Cup sees the top 16 nations form the world group and the Asia Oceania region divided into zones one and two.

New Zealand's journey back to zone one starts today at Albany in their tie against Lebanon.

New Zealand have played Lebanon twice, winning 5-0 in 1957 and 3-2 in 1998.

Although they haven't got a player ranked in the top 1000 in the world, Greenhalgh said that doesn't necessarily mean automatic success for the New Zealand team which is spearheaded by Mark Neilsen, ranked 305 in the world.

"In the Davis Cup, rankings don't count for anything. We don't gain world ranking points and move up the ladder. A lot of players play with a lot of passion and pride, which is what I am expecting from the Lebanese team," said Greenhalgh.

While Lebanon shouldn't pose the New Zealanders too many problems, Greenhalgh said returning to zone one would be difficult.

"There are teams like Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Lebanon, they are all good tennis nations. They might not have the highest rankings in the world but the Davis Cup brings the best out of the people.

"But this is where we are and this is where we have to fight our way out of."

If they do beat Lebanon, New Zealand's next tie is likely to be away in April against the winner of this weekend's Kuwait and Kazakhstan encounter, which Kuwait are favourites to win.

The New Zealand team have spent the last week in camp and Greenhalgh is impressed with their form.

"Dan King-Turner is playing some of the best tennis I have seen him play and we have Mark [Neilsen] who is our most experienced player in Davis Cup. I am very happy with the way the draw worked out with Mark [Neilsen] playing first."

In nine years of Davis Cup tennis, Nielsen has only played second twice.

"It is good our number one player plays their number two player first ... hopefully it will get us off to a good start."

The Lebanese team arrived in Auckland on Sunday and captain Hussain Badreddine said the weather, food and courts here are similar to Lebanon, which has made for an easy adjustment.

He said the team are missing a couple of key players but he is still hopeful of emerging with a win.

"On paper they are much stronger than us," Badreddine said.

"We are going to do the maximum and try not to make the same mistakes we have made before."


Davis Cup

* New Zealand v Lebanon
* MoreFM Tennis Park, Albany.
* Today from 2pm: Singles, Mark Nielsen v Karim Alayli, Dan King-Turner v Patrick Chucri.
* Tomorrow from 2pm: Doubles, Nielsen and King-Turner v Alayli and Chucri.
* Sunday from 11am: Reverse singles, Nielsen v Chucri, King-Turner v Karim Alayli.