Tennis: Statham to lead Davis Cup team at Albany

New Zealand No 1 Rubin Statham will lead the home Davis Cup team on the first day of the Asia/Oceania Group II clash with Malaysia at Albany Tennis Park, North Harbour today.

Statham, 22, who has a world ranking of 425, faces the Malaysian No 2 Razlan Rawi in the first match of the tie, which starts indoors at 2pm. The second match will feature New Zealand's second player, Dan King-Turner (453) against Malaysian No 1 Yew Ming Si. In the doubles King-Turner is listed to play with GD Jones on Saturday with the reverse singles on Sunday. The other member of the New Zealand team is Adam Thompson.

Although the Malaysian team is short on experience compared with the Kiwis, hometown captain James Greenhalgh says he's seen the visitors practice and believes they won't be a pushover.

The winner of the tie will play either Indonesia or Kuwait later in July. The Davis Cup is followed by the ASB Pro Circuit men's US$15,000 Futures and women's US$10,000 tournament starting on Tuesday at Albany.