17 Feb 2011

One new player in Davis Cup team

5:56 pm on 17 February 2011

There is one new player in the New Zealand Davis Cup tennis team for next month's Asia Oceania Group I tie against Uzbekistan with national champion Artem Sitak set to make his debut.

Sitak has a current ATP singles ranking of 351, having been as high as 299 in 2008.

His doubles ranking sits at 182.

Sitak was born in Russia, but has been based in New Zealand and became eligible to play for New Zealand earlier this year.

Sitak will join New Zealand number one Michael Venus who is ranked at 346 and Rubin Statham and Marcus Daniell in the side.

Not considered for selection was Dan King-Turner who is injured and 2010 Davis Cup player Austen Childs who is still completing University in the United States.

The tie will be played in the Eastern city of Namangan which is just over three hours drive from the capital, Tashkent.

Uzbekistan have a top 100 ranked player in the form of Denis Istomin and are likely to use Farrukh Dustov who is ranked at 302 in the world but has been as high as 173 four years ago.