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By Emil C. Noguera
Correspondent
THE drawing of lots for the
RP-Japan Asia-Oceania Davis Cup tie will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday
at the Century Park Hotel.
RP team captain Martin Misa is
expected to nominate Fil-Americans Cecil Mamiit and Eric Taino to
play in the first two singles on Friday. The other members of the
squad are SEAG veteran Johnny Arcilla and Patrick John Tierro.
“We are still reviewing our
records, we haven’t decided yet who will play in the opening
singles,” said Misa.
“Everybody is playing well
during our practice. Cecil and Eric are all out to prove their worth
anew while PJ and Johnny are also peaking. We’re hoping that our
impressive run here [in Davis Cup] will continue,” Misa added.
Leading the Japanese campaign is
32-year-old Satoshi Iwabuchi, who is currently ranked No. 367 in the
world. Other players are Takao Suzuki, Go Soeda and Yuichi Sugita
and Go Saeda.
“It’s winter in Japan, the
temperature in Tokyo is about 10 degrees when we left but we still
have enough time to acclimatize,” said Iwabuchi. “It’s humid
here but honestly, it is less hot than we expected so I guess we
will still do okay. It will not be a problem for us.”
The Japanese players competed in
Australia, China and Hawaii and have attended a 10-day camp back
home before coming here.
“We prepared hard [for the
Davis Cup]. It will not be easy beating the Philippine team
especially that it is the host and it will enjoy a homecourt
advantage, but we will do our best,” added Iwabuchi.
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