> check out the full draw<\/a><\/p>\nThe winner of the tie will guarantee themselves a spot in the elite 16-nation World Group for next year.<\/p>\n
The loser will face a year in the Asia\/Oceania Zone Group, where they will have to battle for the chance to play in another World Group play-off.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios is just 19-years-old, but he\u2019s already had some big-match experience.<\/p>\n
At Wimbledon this year, Kyrgios beat then World No.1 Rafael Nadal on the way to the quarterfinals, before making it to the third round at the US Open.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios said the pressure surrounding the Davis Cup was a different kettle of fish to the Grand Slams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say there\u2019s probably a bit more pressure on Davis Cup,\u201d Kyrgios said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are playing for your country, and you are also playing for the guys around you.\u00a0You\u2019re just trying to do everything possible to get the win, so I think there\u2019s more pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s exciting to have the opportunity to get us back into the World Group and play a quality player like Denis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a fun match and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia enter the play-off as warm favourites, especially on their preferred grass surface.<\/p>\n
But team captain Pat Rafter said his team\u2019s superior ranking would mean nothing once the matches start.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn paper we win, but it doesn\u2019t make any difference when you get out there on court,\u201d Rafter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tough tie.\u00a0We know that these guys are good players. And what happens when you play Davis Cup, some players will lift, and some players will suffer under the strain of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIstomin is a very good player, and Dustov plays better than his ranking when he plays Davis Cup, so we have to be prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia beat Uzbekistan 3-1 on enemy territory during the Asia\/Oceania semifinal on clay last year.<\/p>\n
Istomin said his side were desperate for revenge, and he said he would have no issues playing three days in a row if that\u2019s what\u2019s required to win.<\/p>\n
Uzbekistan have never made it through to the World Group stage, and Istomin said a win over Australia would give tennis in his country a massive boost.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rising star Nick Kyrgios will kick off Australia\u2019s Davis Cup World Group play-off against Uzbekistan in Perth on Friday. Kyrgios has been drawn to face world No.55 Denis Istomin in the first rubber, with Lleyton Hewitt to take on world No.133 Farrukh Dustov later in the day. Hewitt will then join forces with Chris Guccione […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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