Three HK players have Davis Cup rankings

Pacific Oceania will be in a familiar bind when it goes up against ranked players from Hong Kong in the first round of the Asia/Oceania Zone Group II competition set from Feb. 10 to 12 a the Victoria Park Tennis Centre in the former British colony.

The nominations for Hong Kong were released Friday with three out of four players from the former Crown Colony having either singles or doubles rankings in the International Tennis Federation.

Leading the charge for 57th-ranked Hong Kong is Hiu-Tung Yu, a 22-year-old southpaw who is ranked 934 in the ITF singles rankings and 1,312 in the doubles.

Yu has played a total of 14 Davis Cup matches and made his debut in 2002. So far, he has a .500 record in Davis Cup play, winning seven and losing the same number of matches.

Last year, Yu won all four games in Group III competition, with only one match—against Yew Ming Si of Malaysia—going the distance.

Wing-Luen “Wayne” Wong is another Hong Kong player suiting up with an ITF ranking (1,489 in singles). The 25-year-old has the most Davis Cup experience among the four, having compiled a 15-9 win-loss record.

Wong made his Davis Cup debut in 1997 and in 2005 won all of his matches—straight sets against Harshana Godamanne of Sri Lanka and three sets against Selvam Veerasingam of Singapore.

Although he may be youngest of the quartet, 19-year-old Martin Sayer so far has the most success among the bunch in Davis Cup play. Entering their tie with Pacific Oceania, the righthander has an immaculate 8-0 record. Sayer has a doubles ranking of 1,351 and made his debut in style with his eight victories in 2005—all in straight sets.

Another 19-year-old in Hong Kong’s lineup is Xiao-Peng Lai. He is the only unranked netter China’s special economic zone will be fielding against Pacific Oceania. He will also be making his Davis Cup debut.

Team captain for Hong Kong, which first played in the Davis Cup in 1970 and has a 29-31 record, is Derek Ling.

Pacific Oceania, for its part, will be countering with the same team that challenged but lost to powerhouse South Korea in July 2005.

Jeff Race of the CNMI will again be serving as team captain and he will rely on the Davis Cup experience and never-say-die attitude of his four players: Michael Leong of Solomon Islands; Juan Sebastian Langton of Western Samoa; Brett Baudinet of Cook Islands; and West Nott of Marshall Islands.

The islanders come into their tie against Hong Kong as the 63rd-ranked team in Davis Cup competition. This would also be the first time Pacific Oceania and Hong Kong will face off in any level in Davis Cup play.