January 15, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 05, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 14: Pakistan will begin preparations for this year's Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group-III tournament from February, a Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) official said on Monday.

The PTF official told newsmen that the federation will soon work out a comprehensive training programme for the national Davis Cup squad in a bid to ensure the country's performance in the premier international team tennis tournament is better than the last couple of years.

Pakistan are to feature in the eight-nation Asia Oceania Group-III tournament scheduled to be played in Tehran (Iran) during April this year. They will be joined by hosts Iran, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam in the tournament to be held from April 9-13.

According to the format of the tournament, the eight competing teams will be divided into two pools of four each. The top two nations from each pool advance to a further round-robin pool of four, from which the teams finishing first and second are promoted to Asia/Oceania Group II in 2009.

The last-placed two nations in each pool will advance to a further round-robin pool of four, from which the teams finishing third and fourth are relegated to Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV in 2009.

Pakistan reached the World Group playoff for the first time in 2005 but since then, the graph of their Davis Cup performance has dipped consistently. They lost in the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group-I tournament in 2006 and were relegated to Group-II in 2007. Later a string of defeats in the Group-II event last year relegated them to Group-III in 2008.

The PTF official said that Pakistan wants to ensure that they climb back to Group II by winning the Tehran tournament.—Agencies