Ali expects tough Davis Cup test

Dubai: Zeeshan Ali, the UAE team's tennis coach, sees a danger lurking around in all seven opponents as his team prepares to play their Davis Cup encounter in Sri Lanka from July 16-24.

"We cannot underestimate, or for that reason, even narrow down on any strong opponent during the Davis Cup," Zeeshan Ali told Gulf News as the five-member team trained at MatchPoint Academy.

"All teams are evenly balanced with each of them having at least two quality players who can play a good level of tennis," Zeeshan Ali stated.

The UAE has been pitted with Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Vietnam and hosts Sri Lanka in the Asia-Oceania Group III Davis Cup encounter in Colombo.

"We have done some homework regarding our opponents and we have stumbled on the fact that there are at least two quality players who are actively playing college level tennis in the US.

"One needs to be at a really high standard to be playing college level tennis, so we know for sure that we are going to face some quality clashes over the weekend," the UAE coach noted.

Lebanon and Oman may be considered the traditionally 'weak' teams, but both have at least two players in their ranks who are active at the college level tennis circuit in the US.

"Hence, no one can be counted as a weak opponent. This is a Group III clash and each of the other seven teams is capable of winning with some quality players in their ranks," Zeeshan Ali said.

The UAE team is scheduled to leave Dubai on July 14 with Zeeshan Ali as the coach and Mahmoud Khalifa as the manager.

The eight participating teams will be divided into two groups of four each with the top two getting an automatic promotion to Group II for 2008. The bottom two will get relegated to Group IV for the next season. "I am sure we can expect some very hard matches against any of the teams playing us," Zeeshan Ali stated.

The former Indian Davis Cup player has adequate experience on the world stage to guide the side into either holding on to its place in Group III or migrating to Group II for next year.

"But the immediate goal is to ensure that we play well and hard during all our matches.

"Unlike in the World Group where it is a best of five affair, our encounters consist of only two singles and one doubles. So there is very little scope for making mistakes," Zeeshan Ali warned.

Omar Behroozian will start off as the number one player, while Mahmoud Nader will be the number two for the singles. Tennis Emirates has drafted in three juniors in the form of Hamad Abbas Al Janahi, Faisal Bastaki and Khalid Al Hassani.

"So the pressure will be on Omar to win his singles. This is something that Omar is not new to. He has been serving the country for the past few years and he really comes out with his best during the Davis Cup," Zeeshan Ali commented.