Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) Taiwan has opted to send a young Davis Cup team to face Australia in the first round of Asia-Oceania Zone Group I play next month in Melbourne, Australia after its top veteran players decided not to play.
Representing Taiwan in the world's premier team tennis competition against Australia will be Yang Tsung-hua, Yi Chu-huan, Huang Liang-chi and Lee Hsin-han, all 22-years-old or younger, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association (CTTA) announced recently.
Taiwan's top players Lu Yen-hsun and Wang Yeu-tzuoo decided to pass on the tournament so that younger players could have an opportunity to gain valuable experience in major international competitions, according to a statement released by the association.
The pair believed that the exposure would benefit the development of these young talents as well as Taiwanese tennis in the long run, the CTTA said.
Lu currently ranks 103rd on the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Tour while Wang was ranked as high as 85th in 2006 before sustaining various injuries that have kept him out of competitive tennis for much of the past two years.
Wang hopes to resume tournament play in the coming weeks after doctors cleared him to play following wrist surgery last year.
Lu and Wang could still join the team in later rounds, whether it means gaining promotion to the World Group or avoiding relegation to Asia Oceania Group II, said CTTA Secretary-General Liu Chung-hsing.
The absence of Lu and Wang is somewhat unfortunate since Australia will be without veteran stalwart Lleyton Hewitt and could be vulnerable.
The Australian team will consist of Peter Luczak, ranked 75th in the world, 17-year-old phenom Bernard Tomic, Davis Cup veteran Carsten Bell and doubles specialist Paul Hanley.
Taiwan's tennis association has high hopes for its new faces, led by 19-year-old Yang Tsung-hua. Yang is currently ranked 330th in the world, and had the top singles/doubles combined ranking for juniors in 2008.
Yang will be hoping to avenge a loss to Tomic in the boys' singles final of the 2008 Australian Open.
Huang Liang-chi was ranked No. 3 in the ITF Junior ranking at one point while Yi and Lee won the men's doubles gold in the World University Games last year.
It will be only the third time that Taiwan's Davis Cup team will not have either Lu or Wang since the country won promotion in 2004 to Asia-Oceania Group I, just one step away from the top level World Group.
At the time, most tennis observers believed that with two players of their caliber, Taiwan would have plenty of opportunities to finish in the top two of the eight-team Group I and get a shot at a playoff to reach the World Group.
But injuries, conflicts with the CTTA, and disappointing performances have derailed those hopes, and without Lu or Wang this year, the six-year streak of not reaching the World Group playoffs is likely to continue.
In the other matchups of the Asia-Oceania Zone, Japan meets the Philippines, China takes on Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will play South Korea.
If Taiwan beats Australia, it will play the winner of the Japan-Philippines clash in a battle for promotion, but if it falls, it will have to play the loser of the Japan-Philippines match in a relegation battle.