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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter

LOCAL tennis fans have something to look forward to this weekend as Zimbabwe’s Davis Cup team returns to action when they play Uruguay in the World Group II Play-offs at Harare Sports Club.

The tie gets underway on Friday with the two singles matches. Saturday sees the doubles clash and the reverse singles.

Uruguay are already in the country and have been training at Harare Sports Club.

They are missing their number one player Pablo Cuevas who has been part of the team for more than a decade.

However, they have experienced players in Martin Cuevas, brother of Pablo, and Ariel Behar. The other team members are Ignacio Carou, Franco Roncadelli and Joaquin Aguilar Cardozo.

Uruguay are ranked higher than Zimbabwe on the Davis Cup rankings but Zimbabwe’s number one player in the team — Benjamin Lock — is ranked better at 387 in the singles rankings and has a doubles ranking of 184.

While the visitors’ top player in the team — Martin Cuevas — has a singles ranking of 464 and a doubles ranking of 252. There is also Behar with a doubles ranking of 57.

Uruguay’s captain Enrique Perez-Cassarino is not reading much into the rankings and believes anything can happen in the two days of competition at the weekend.

“First of all I don’t think we are the favourites. If we see the rankings, the number one of the tie is the number one of Zimbabwe, on singles rankings he has the best ranking of all the players.

“And on one case we don’t have our first player and it’s Pablo Cuevas. But he is injured right now and he is the leader of this team in the last 15 years. But we have a mixture of young players and some players that have more experience in the Davis Cup competition.

“But (with) Davis Cup, you have to be in the week that you are playing, you have to fight every point . . . We have a lot of examples that sometimes one team, who have the worst ranking, is able to beat the other one and this is the nice (part) of this competition,” said Perez-Cassarino

The Uruguay captain, however, admitted that the absence of Pablo has an effect on his side but is upbeat ahead of the tie.

“When you have a player and has been (in) the top 50 almost 10 years in such a small country like Uruguay, for us it’s very important. It’s not very common that a player like him is coming out of our country. We don’t have a programme to develop players as in Europe, or in the United States or Australia.

“So it’s a huge impact that he is starting like to slowing down his career and to play a little bit less of Davis Cup ties. But, on the other hand, it’s the reality and we have to know that now we have to go also with new players and give experience to them to play this kind of competition.

“I am always confident in my team but we have to play . . . I have a lot of confidence in them but I know that on the other side there will be another team. They will be fighting for the same targets and goals that we have. That is to win the tie on the weekend, so we will see.”

Zimbabwe’s team consists of Benjamin and Courtney Lock, Mehluli Sibanda and Benedict Badza. They are led by captain Takanyi Garanganga.

Garanganga is positive they stand a good chance against Uruguay.