The first round of the Davis Cup is set to commence later today, as India, who are seeded No 2 in their group, will take on New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Group I tie at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune. WATCH LEANDER PAES' DOUBLES MATCH HERE.
But all eyes will be on Indian tennis legend Leander Paes, who is most likely making his last appearance in the Davis Cup, and is also looking to become the most successful doubles player in Davis Cup history. Paes is currently tied with Italy's Nicola Pietrangeli with 42 wins and he will have to defeat the New Zealand pair of Artem Sitak and Michael Venus to create history.
Also read: World tennis schedule 2017
Leander Paes will be teaming up with Vishnu Vardhan who was his doubles partner at the London Olympics instead of first choice Saketh Myneni who failed to recover from a foot injury he sustained during the Chennai Open.
While Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan will play their doubles match on Saturday, Day 1 will see two singles matches as Yuki Bhambri will be taking on New Zealand's No 1 player Finn Tearney and Ramkumar Ramanathan will take on Jose Statham in the second singles match of the day.
Meanwhile Anand Amritraj, who will be leading the Indian side for the last time before Mahesh Bhupathi takes over as captain of India's Davis Cup team, will be determined to win his final match as India's non-playing captain.
Anand Amritraj has called on his players not to take New Zealand lightly especially their single players as the last time they did that, they went 2-1 down.
"Their doubles team is stronger but we cannot take their singles players light. When we met the last time we did that and we were down 1-2".
India will be expected to win this clash against New Zealand -- the last time they lost to the Kiwis was way back in 1978 -- and progress to the second round where they could face either Uzbekistan or South Korea with that match set to be played between April 7 and 9.
Where to watch
The first round Davis Cup match between India and New Zealand is set to start at 3:00pm IST (9:30am GMT, 4:30am EST)
TV and Live streaming information
India: TV: DD Sports
New Zealand: TV: beIN sports. Live streaming: beIN sports connect
USA: TV: Tennis Channel
UK: TV: BBC, Eurosport
Live score update: Davis Cup official site
