Tennis: NZ v Kuwait, Davis Cup, information

When and where: North Harbour Tennis Park, Oteha Valley Rd, Albany.

Match times: Opening singles, 2pm today; doubles 2pm tomorrow; reverse singles 11am Sunday.

How they got this far

Asia Oceania zone, group two.
First round:
New Zealand 4 Kazakhstan 1
Kuwait 4 Iran 1

What happens next

* The winner this weekend will move into the group final. They will play the winner of the other semifinal between Korea and Pacific Oceania in Seoul, also starting today.
* The group winner wins promotion to group one next year. The loser stays in group two.
* If that final decider is between this week's favourites, New Zealand and Korea, that tie will be held in New Zealand from September 23-25.
* Group one contains teams including India, Pakistan and China. From that group, teams advance to playoffs to qualify for the world group. The players

NEW ZEALAND

MARK NIELSEN
Born: Oct 8, 1977.
Current singles ranking: 414.
Highest singles ranking: 172, May 2000.
Highest doubles ranking: 171, Sept 2003.
Davis Cup record: Singles 16 wins, 12 losses, doubles 3 wins, 4 losses.
Davis Cup debut: v Indonesia, 1997.
Has won two Futures singles titles, China 2000 and Japan 2005, plus made nine finals; has 14 Futures doubles titles.
Twice made second round of the Heineken Open, 1998 and 2002

GD JONES
Born: April 1 1986.
Current singles ranking: 950.
Was world No 25 junior last year. Won a variety of ITF 18s tournaments and made the doubles quarter-finals of the junior US Open last year. Has also played at junior Wimbledon and US and Australian Opens.
Studying at: University of Illinois, whose tennis team is among the best in the US.
Davis Cup record: This is his second Davis Cup tie after Kazakstan earlier this year, when he won both matches.

DAN KING-TURNER
Born: May 15, 1984
Current singles ranking: 722
Born in Nelson but has lived most of his life in Christchurch.
Started the year with no ATP singles ranking points, but has picked up points at Israeli satellite event.
Best result this year was making the quarter-finals at Japan Futures, where he lost to Nielsen in three sets.

ADAM THOMPSON
Born: July 28, 1982
Current singles ranking: 713
Highest singles ranking: 677, August 2004
His first Davis Cup tie.
Best result of the year was reaching the semifinals of a Futures event in Japan, and made two doubles semifinals as well.

KUWAIT

MOHAMMED AL GHAREEB
Born: July 22, 1980.
Current singles ranking: 635.
Highest singles ranking: 569, June this year.
Davis Cup debut: v Bangladesh 1997.
Davis Cup singles record: 23 wins 6 losses.

ABDULLAH MAGDAS
Born: March 31, 1987.
Current singles ranking: 1479.
Davis Cup debut: v Malaysia in 2003.
Davis Cup singles record: 4 wins 1 loss.
Is No 29 on world junior ranking list. Made the third round of junior Wimbledon this year.