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ZIMBABWE’S Davis Cup team will be hoping to pull off an upset when they face Poland in the Europe/Africa Group II second round tie this weekend in Sopot. The team, made up of captain Gwinyai Tongoona, Takanyi Garanganga, Benjamin Lock, Mark Chigaazira and Mehluli Sibanda, is already in Poland.
Zimbabwe are going into this tie as the underdogs.
But, after successfully securing their spot in Group II when they beat Turkey in February, they will be hoping for another success story this weekend.
The tie will be played on Saturday and Sunday. Tongoona was working with Chigaazira and Sibanda before they left for Poland on Monday.
Lock was playing tournaments in Egypt and flew directly to Poland while Garanganga was in the Netherlands.
Tongoona said the victory against Turkey put them in a good position ahead of this tie since they were now looking at advancing into the next round instead of playing in the relegation play-off.
“If we win this tie, it will be a big bonus, huge for Zimbabwe tennis,’’ said Tongoona.
‘‘If we don’t we are still in a good position because I think the last few years we have lost the first match of the year if we were in Group II, so we were always in a play-off to go back down (into Africa Group III) or stay in the Group.
“So this tie if we lose we basically we stay in the Group, which is good for us because that means next year we are still in Group II and we will have a chance again to try for Group I.
‘‘And if we do win then we have an extra tie, the guys are going to play an extra tie and hopefully get into Group I. That’s why that win against Turkey was so important.’’
Poland’s team is made up of captain Radoslaw Szymanik, number one player Hubert Hurkacz, Kamil Majchrzak, Michal Przysiezny, Lukasz Kubot ranked number in the doubles and Marcin Matkowski.
They beat Slovenia 3-2 in the first round tie.
Online Reporter