Tennis: Hunt back in Davis Cup fold

Alistair Hunt has been called into New Zealand's Davis Cup team. File Picture / Derek Flynn

Three years after playing what he thought was his last Davis Cup tie, Alistair Hunt has answered an SOS to return to the fold.

Thirty-four-year-old Hunt has been called into the team for next month's Asia/Oceania zone tie against Kazakhstan following Mark Nielsen's withdrawal from the New Zealand team late last week after news of his impending hearing in front of the International Tennis Federation's anti-doping tribunal in London in May.

Hunt joins Dan King-Turner, Rubin Statham and Adam Thompson for the April 7-9 tie.

While the men have called in a veteran to lend a hand, Fed Cup non-playing captain Pavlina Nola has opted for three teenagers Marina Erakovic, Ellen Barry and Kairangi Vano - to join 25-year-old veteran Leanne Baker in what promises to be a reasonably strong team and one for the future.

"It was a bit of a bolt from the blue I must admit," said Hunt who called his long Davis Cup career quits after a losing 2003 tie in India.

"As I see it, I'm there purely as a reserve."

But that might not be the case with reasonably strong suggestions non-playing captain James Greenhalgh might use Hunt's talents as a doubles player to bolster the team by asking him to take Nielsen's place as King-Turner's doubles partner.

"It's all up to Jimmy [Greenhalgh]," said Hunt from Christchurch. "I'd be happy to sit there and watch the other guys win the tie."

If he is given the nod to play doubles, Hunt remains realistic.

"It's not like we would be playing Federer or Roddick is it?"

Hunt does take some form to the match venue in Almaty, however.

He has completed another successful domestic season including a win over King-Turner in the final of the national grasscourt championships as well as playing in the annual transtasman contest.

"I've been running an hour a day to get ready for a half marathon down here in June, so I'm probably fitter than when I stopped playing internationally," said Hunt, who has also been flat out coaching seven days a week as he combines his career with his duties as a new dad to his four-month-old son.

"What they didn't tell me when I agreed to play was that I would need a 40-hour trip to get there," said Hunt, who leaves today to fly to Auckland, on to Los Angeles then Frankfurt before the journey to Kazakhstan.

Hunt played Davis Cup from 1995-2003 with a 19-17 record including wins over a number of top players including Richard Krajicek and Paradon Srichaphan.

New Zealand Tennis looked at other options including younger players GD Jones, Austen Childs and Matt Simpson but all had commitments elsewhere.

The Fed Cup team, who play in a seven-nation tournament in Korea from April 17-23, will be in Auckland for a week next month before flying to Seoul. Barry and Vano are poised to make their cup debuts.