India to host Taipei in Davis Cup first round

London: India were on Wednesady handed an easy draw for next year`s Davis Cup campaign in the Asia/Oceania Group I as they were pitted against Chinese Taipei in their first round tie, here.

It will be a home tie for India as they had played Taipei in Kaohsiung in 2009, eking out a 3-2 win over the hosts when the two teams played for the first time against each other. Uzbekistan and Korea are the seeded teams this year and they have got a bye in their first rounds. India are in the bottom half of the draw and if they win against Taipei in the first round, slated for January 31 to February 1, they will travel to Korea for the second-round tie. AITA President Anil Khanna said they will decide on the venue shortly. "It is a good draw for us. We will discuss the venue and announce that shortly," Khanna told PTI. After a players` revolt early this year, AITA had agreed to consult players before deciding on the venue and surface for the Davis Cup home ties. AITA is also to decide a new captain as S P Misra had his farewell tie against Indonesia in Bangalore. India`s Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali expressed happiness on getting a good draw. "Playing at home is always welcome. This year we will play with full strength team so a good chance for us to get back to the World Group," Zeeshan said. "Taipei have a good singles player (Yen-Hsun Lu) but we should be able to beat them," he said. In the 2103 campaign, a depleted India, sans singles and doubles stars, had suffered a 1-4 defeat against Korea but beat Indonesia 5-0 to remain in Group I. Chinese Taipei were whitewashed by Australia and China before they managed to stay in Group I after 5-0 win against Indonesia in the relegation play-off. PTI