Australia to take on Germany in Hamburg
Australia's Davis Cup team will travel to Hamburg in September to take on Germany in Davis Cup, with a win returning them to the elite World Group in 2013.
Hamburg, Germany, 12 June 2012 | Tennis Australia
Australia’s Davis Cup team will travel to Hamburg in Germany for a World Group Play-off tie on 14-16 September.
The tie, to be staged at Hamburg’s Rothenbaum Stadion on outdoor red clay, will see the Australians take on Germany for the seventh time in the history of the competition.
The winning team will advance to the 16-nation World Group in 2013.
Australia leads Germany 4-2 in the head-to-head, yet Germany claimed the biggest battle between the two nations with a win in the Davis Cup final in 1993.
Australia has not been in the World Group since 2007, having lost its last four World Group Play-off ties.
However, the team will be confident that they can reverse that trend, having enjoyed a dominant run to this point in the competition.
The green-and-gold resoundingly beat both China and Korea in Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1 ties – winning 5-0 on both occasions – to take their place against Germany, which lost its first round World Group tie 4-1 against Argentina.
The Aussies have been consistently represented this year by Bernard Tomic, Matthew Ebden and Chris Guccione, with Marinko Matosevic replacing the injured Lleyton Hewitt for the tie against Korea at the Queensland Tennis Centre in April.
Florian Mayer, Philipp Petzschner, Tommy Haas and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe anchored the German team during their loss to Argentina in February.
The Australian and German teams will be announced 10 days out from the start of the tie.