07 Jan Algeria Announce Venue for Davis Cup Tie
The Algerian Tennis Federation have announced a venue for Ireland’s First Round Euro Africa Zone Group II in Algeria the weekend of the 6th – 8th March 2009. Sean Sorensen’s charges will travel to the capital Algiers with the Office du Complex Olimique Mohamed Boudiaf Tennis Club confirmed as venue for the event. The clay-court, two-thousand seat capacity venue in front of a partizan Algerian crowd will certainly be an imposing destination for the Irish team. With average tempratures of 19 degrees Celcius in the month of March it will be hoped that climate won’t prove to be a major advantage to the North Africans.
Algeria will be somewhat of an unknown quantity to the Irish, having never met the North Africans at international level before, and only Algerians listed in the ATP rankings. The major threat will come from current world no.191 Lamine Ouahab, a player with an enviable record in Davis Cup competition winning 25 of 29 rubbers during his career. What makes this record even more impressive is his 100% record in the competition on clay.
Ireland will go into the tie bouyed by their good performances from Davis Cup 2008, and with the emergence of new Irish names appearing on the ATP rankings list over the past six-months such as Barry King including experienced campaigners such as Luke Sorensen and Conor Niland, Ireland will have strength in depth over the coming season. Players also looking to push hard for a Davis Cup place this year will be recent RSA National Indoors finalist James McGee and Colin O’Brien.
The first tie on March 6th is set to begin at 11am (Irish time) in Algiers. For further information on the tie please click here