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Cape Town - Portugal have announced their best possible team for the upcoming Davis Cup tie against the South Africa.
The Euro/Africa Zone Group 1 relegation playoff tie will be played on outdoor red clay at the Club Internacional De Foot-Ball in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon on October 19-20.
Three of the four named Portuguese players are all ranked inside the top 200 in the world.
The team announced comprises Joao Sousa, Pedro Sousa, Gastao Elias and Joao Domingues.
Nuno Marques, the former Portuguese Davis Cup player is the team captain.
Marques was the first ever player from Portugal to break into the world’s top 100 in singles.
Marques said it was important for Portugal to capitalise on home ground advantage.
“It is obvious that we prefer to play this Davis Cup tie in Portugal, so we can use the home conditions in our favour, playing on red clay instead of hardcourts, as best as we can to pursuit our goals. We will try to use the Davis Cup home advantage from our side. It is very important in this competition and our recent results playing at home shows us how strong we can be when we play in front of our home crowd.
The Portuguese captain spoke highly of the South African team.
“As per the South African team, we do know they have a number one player which is very young, Lloyd Harris, with a lot of potential and good recent results. But they also have a strong doubles team, which makes the whole South African team very dangerous.”
Marques ended by saying “This Davis Cup tie is extremely important to Portugal, and we know that we will have to be fully concentrated and playing our best and solid tennis, so we can achieve our main goal, which is to secure our team inside the Group I, where we deserve to be."
The South African team announced on Tuesday comprises Lloyd Harris, Nik Scholtz, Ruan Roelofse, specialist doubles player Raven Klaasen and junior Philip Henning.
