Uzbekistan gears up for Davis Cup victory
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)