Tennis: Youthful team for Davis Cup

New Zealand will field one of its youngest Davis Cup tennis teams next month, against Indonesia in Jakarta in the Asia/Oceania second-round playoff.

However, non-playing captain Bruce Derlin believes the team named yesterday for the April 9-11 event should win the tie.

Mark Nielsen, Dan King-Turner, Matt Prentice and William Ward have played just 14 ties between them, with King-Turner yet to take the court and Ward named for the first time. Prentice has played just one doubles match.

Ward turned 18 three weeks ago and is ranked among the top 30 juniors in the world. During the recent Futures events around New Zealand he won his first singles ATP ranking point and twice made the quarter-finals of the doubles.

"At this stage Nielsen and either King-Turner or Ward are probably my singles combination, with Nielsen and Prentice the doubles," said Derlin.

"I believe we are 70-30 in our favour of winning."

Simon Rea is missing because he was not released by the University of Tennessee.


New Zealand Davis Cup team: Mark Nielsen (North Harbour), Dan King Turner (Canterbury), Matt Prentice (Wellington), William Ward (Auckland).