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Taiwan to meet Pakistan in Asian Davis Cup qualifiers

Pakistan meet Taiwan in the second round of tennis' Davis Cup Asia Oceania Zone Group I from today with an eye on qualifying for the competition's World Group for the first time.

Victory will give Pakistan, who stunned Thailand in the first round last month, a shot at making the elite World Group at a play-off in July.

weekend ties

Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Chile, Sweden, Belarus, the US, Germany and Britain, who are confirmed for the play-offs, will be joined by a further six teams following the completion of Group I ties.

Pakistan will be pinning their hopes on star player Aisamul Haq, who shocked Thai ace Paradorn Srichapan to clinch the first-round tie and who won three gold medals in the Islamic Games in Saudi Arabia this month.

Team manager Rashid Malik said Pakistan also have a clear advantage in playing the tie on grass.

"It's a golden opportunity and since Taiwanese players feel uncomfortable at grass we hope to cash in on it and progress to World Group play-offs," said Malik, part of the Pakistan team which won a World Group play-off in 1984.

better rankings

"Their [Taiwan's] players have better rankings than our players but I still feel we have a better chance," he said.

Home advantage may also play a role, with Thailand's Paradorn complaining about the "funny bounce" of the Lahore court when his team fell 4-1 here in March.

Haq, Pakistan's No. 1, is ranked at 251, well below Taiwan's top player Lu Yen-hsun who is No. 152 in the ATP rankings.

Pakistan No. 2 Aqeel Khan, who also played against Thailand, is ranked 369 while the other two home players -- Asim Shafik and Shahzad Khan -- are outside the top 1,000.

Taiwan's No. 2 Wang Yen-tzuoo (161), Ti Chen (270) and Liu Tai-Wei (614) are the other visiting players.
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