Taiwan is sending a young Davis Cup team to face Australia in the first round of Asia-Oceania Zone Group I play next month in Melbourne, Australia, after its top players decided not to play.
Representing Taiwan in the world’s premier team tennis competition against Australia will be Yang Tsung-hua, Yi Chu-huan, Huang Liang-chi and Lee Hsin-han, all 22 or younger, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association (CTTA) announced.
Taiwan’s top players Lu Yen-hsun and Wang Yeu-tzuoo decided to pass on the tournament so that younger players could have an opportunity to gain valuable experience in major international competitions, a statement released by the association said.
The pair believed that the exposure would benefit the development of these young talents as well as Taiwanese tennis in the long run, the CTTA said.
Lu currently ranks 103rd on the ATP Tour while Wang was ranked as high as 85th in 2006 before sustaining various injuries that have kept him out of competitive tennis for much of the past two years.
Wang hopes to resume tournament play in the coming weeks after doctors cleared him to play following wrist surgery last year.
Lu and Wang could still join the team in later rounds, whether it means gaining promotion to the World Group or avoiding relegation to Asia Oceania Group II, CTTA secretary-general Liu Chung-hsing said.
The absence of Lu and Wang is somewhat unfortunate since Australia will be without veteran stalwart Lleyton Hewitt and could be vulnerable.
The Australian team comprises Peter Luczak, ranked 75th in the world, 17-year-old phenomenon Bernard Tomic, Davis Cup veteran Carsten Bell and doubles specialist Paul Hanley.
Taiwan’s tennis association has high hopes for its new faces, led by 19-year-old Yang, currently ranked 330th in the world.
He will be hoping to avenge a loss to Tomic in the boys’ singles final of the 2008 Australian Open.
Huang was ranked No. 3 in the ITF Junior ranking at one point while Yi and Lee won the men’s doubles gold in the World University Games last year.
It will be only the third time that Taiwan’s Davis Cup team will not feature either Lu or Wang since the winnning promotion in 2004 to Asia-Oceania Group I, just one step away from the top level World Group.
At the time, most tennis observers believed that with two players of their caliber, Taiwan would have plenty of opportunities to finish in the top two of the eight-team Group I and get a shot at a playoff to reach the World Group.
Injuries, conflicts with the CTTA, and disappointing performances, however, have derailed those hopes, and without Lu or Wang this year, the six-year streak of not reaching the World Group playoffs is likely to continue.
In the other matchups of the Asia-Oceania Zone, Japan meet the Philippines, China take on Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will play South Korea.
If Taiwan beat Australia, they will play the winner of the Japan-Philippines clash in a battle for promotion, but defeat will mean a relegation showdown against the loser of the Japan-Philippines match.
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