Uzbekistan gears up for Davis Cup victory
JAKARTA (JP): Uzbekistan is preparing for its victory in the Davis Cup Group I Asia Oceania zone tie against Indonesia by arriving here early for acclimatization.
The team arrived two weeks ahead of the scheduled matches from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11 at the Kemayoran Tennis Center in Central Jakarta. Uzbekistan topped Group I standings while Indonesia has been promoted to Group I and has to win the match if it wants to stay in the group.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Uzbekistan head coach Mojmir Mihal said his team came for victory. He admitted that Indonesia could benefit due to the climate and being the host.
"We want to win. There are special rules and conditions, like the weather and it's not just the ATP ranks which determine the victory. So we came early to prepare. We want to prepare everything for our success," said Mihal, a Slovakian who just joined the team two months ago.
However, he refused to disclose the doubles lineup, saying his players would strive to win all singles and doubles events.
The Uzbekistan team consists of non-playing captain Abdukhamid Makhkamov and players Oleg Ogorodov, Vadim Kutsenko, Dmitriy Tomashevich and Dmitriy Mazur.
Makhkamov remained modest over his team's chances despite the fact that some of the players had defeated Indonesians either in their home soil or in overseas tournaments.
"I know Indonesian players in the singles and doubles event. They are good," he said.
Indonesia will field Suwandi as the first singles, Hendri Susilo Pramono as the second singles and veteran doubles Bonit Wiryawan and Sulistyo Wibowo.
The team defeated Chinese Taipei in the Group II match in October and was promoted to Group I.
Two weeks ago, Tomashevich and an Indian partner beat Bonit and Sulistyo in the men's doubles event at Future-3 in India.
Indonesia had earlier said that it needs a good strategy and a miracle to grab points from Uzbekistan.
Mihal said his players had no problem with the plexy-paved court at Kemayoran although they heavily favored playing on the clay court.
"They practiced on the hard court late last year and early this year. After finishing the clay court season, they started to play on the hard court," he said.
Uzbekistan qualified in the World Group three times in a row starting in 1998 but always failed to remain in the elite group.
It lost to host Australia in 1998, to the Czech Republic in 1999 and to Poland in 2000.
According to Yaakov Ribalsky, an adviser from the Uzbekistan Tennis Federation, the Davis Cup team members had not changed in the last four years. (ivy)