'To win a medal, the players will have to play a couple of tough rounds. The draws are fine, and balanced and give us the opportunity to go deep.'
The 17-times Grand Slam champion, looking to give Switzerland their first Davis Cup title, lost his first singles rubber against Gael Monfils on Friday five days after withdrawing from the World Tour final against Novak Djokovic.
Defending champions Serbia will be huge favourites to reach the Davis Cup semi-finals this weekend as newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic returns to action against Sweden.
France will meet Serbia in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup after both finished off their last-eight ties inside two days on Saturday but Australia and Belgium were made to sweat.
An independent tribunal of the ITF will now deliberate upon the appeal and make a final decision by November 18.
Rohan Bopanna and debutant N Sriram Balaji were clinical in routing their rivals as India sealed the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I tie against Uzbekistan by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead, in Bengaluru, on Saturday.
In a moral victory for the All India Tennis Association, the International Tennis Federation has given the AITA the right to host its next Davis Cup tie against Australia, which had forfeited its previous rubber on security grounds in May.
Ties between US and Pakistan intelligence agencies have hit an all time low due to standoff over the arrest of American official Raymond Davis on murder charge compromising critical counter-terrorism operations including drone strikes targeting top terror leaders.
The CBI sleuths were left red-faced after Davy's counsel pointed out during the court proceedings in Copenhagen that the arrest warrant issued by a special CBI court against his client had expired in January this year.
The United States on Wednesday expressed its gratitude to the families of two Pakistani men gunned down by Central Intelligence Agency contractor Raymond Davis for pardoning him and said the Department of Justice was investigating the shooting incident.
The doubles specialist made the team at the expense of Prakash Amritraj, who was rendered ineligible after the new sports policy that bars foreign passport holders from representing the country. Amritraj holds a United States passport.
He was included in the Davis Cup team for the Asia Oceania Group 1 tie against New Zealand from February 6 to 8.
Roger Federer toughed out a 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Australia's Lleyton Hewitt to level Switzerland's Davis Cup World playoff tie at 1-1 on Friday.
Davis Cup champions Britain were locked at 1-1 with Japan after the opening two singles of their World Group, first-round tie on Friday after Andy Murray gave the hosts the lead.
Serbia's World No 2 Novak Djokovic has been left out of Saturday's doubles in the Davis Cup final against holders CzechRepublic, with Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac named to play against Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek.
India have been seeded third in Group I of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania zone. They have been given a bye in the first round before taking on the winner of the match between Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan in the second round, scheduled from March 6 to 8, 2009.
Spain's depth of talent and growing appetite for Davis Cup success mean the only team that could have given them a real run for their money in this year's final would have been "Spain B".
Canada named rising star and world number 69 Denis Shapovalov in its squad to take on India in the upcoming Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie, scheduled in Edmonton from September 15.
Rafael Nadal survived a spirited early attack from American Sam Querrey on Friday, before beating the Davis Cup debutant 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening semi-final rubber in Madrid.
Former Davis Cup player Premjit Lall on Wednesday passed away at his residence in Kolkata after a prolonged illness.
Novak Djokovic began the fightback and Janko Tipsarevic completed the job as Serbia overturned a 2-1 deficit against Canada in the Davis Cup semi-final on Sunday.
Rafael Nadal will lead Spain's challenge in the Davis Cup semi-final against the United States in Madrid next week.
Switzerland won home advantage in the first-round draw and are likely to opt for a fast court to counteract the claycourt supremacy of the Spanish.
United States national Raymond Davis, an alleged Central Intelligence Agency contractor who was arrested for gunning down two men in Lahore, on Friday insisted he acted in self defence and had diplomatic immunity during a hearing into murder charges against him at a Pakistani court, which adjourned the trial till March 3.
American official Raymond Davis, arrested for killing two Pakistanis in Lahore, may have headed a covert Central Intelligence Agency team that was tasked to secretly gather intelligence on the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which the United States feels is getting out of the shadows of the Pakistan army to launch a campaign of jihad against it and Europe.
Denmark on Tuesday assured India that it would undertake further techno-legal examination of its request for the extradition of Danish national Kim Davy, the main accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, and initiate discussions on that basis.
The controversy over the killing of two Pakistanis by a United States consulate employee in Lahore took a new turn on Monday with a media report stating that the dead men were believed to be "intelligence operatives".
The world number one has shrugged off jet-lag and is relishing Switzerland's Davis Cup clash against Romania.
Lukas Rosol beat Evgeny Korolev 7-6, 67, 7-6, 6-2 to give the Czech Republic an unassailable 3-1 lead over Kazakhstan and propel the defending champions into the Davis Cup semi-finals on Sunday.
Australia's John Blom is the neutral umpire and India's Punit Gupta the chair umpire for the April 7-9 Davis Cup zonal play-off encounter.
Holders Czech Republic showed how tenaciously they will fight to retain the Davis Cup on Saturday, while five-times champions Spain avoided being knocked out in the first round for the first time since 2006 by winning their doubles rubber against Canada.
Veteran doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi made a comeback for national duty as a five-member Indian team for the Asia-Oceania Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan was announced in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Somdev Devvarman recorded his first Davis Cup win to keep India afloat in the second round tie against Chinese Taipei as both the teams were locked 1-1 on the opening day of the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I tie in Kaohsiung (Chinese Taipei) on Friday.
Four members of the Davis Cup team have written to the AITA saying they will not play under captain Leander Paes.
Yuki Bhambri returned to India's Davis Cup squad for the World Group play-off tie against world No 2 Serbia, as the selectors named a six-member squad on expected lines. Somdev Devvarman, the country's No 1 singles player, will lead the squad.
Argentina, the Czech Republic and Spain also booked their places in the last eight by opening up 3-0 leads.
The youngster faces Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, while Rohan Bopanna will play Farrukh Dustov in the Asia Oceania Zone Group I tie.
Holders Serbia avoided any more scares to complete a 4-1 victory over India in the Davis Cup on Sunday and Germany joined them in the quarter-finals as Philipp Petzschner edged them to victory in a thriller in Croatia. The United States also booked a home quarter-final against favourites Spain as Andy Roddick gave them a 3-1 lead in Chile with victory over Paul Capdeville.
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