The ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP to take place on May 18-24, 2008 at the Duesseldorf Rochusclub will enter the fourth decade of its history with a change of its playing system. At the 31st edition of the Tennis World Team Championship a tie will be played over two days so that every team will now play on every day from Sunday through Friday.
Most certainly the performances of the two 2007 Davis Cup finalists USA and Russia will be closely eyed. Against the background of such a top class field of entries Germany's team with Philipp Kohlschreiber and Nicolas Kiefer will surely have to make a great effort.
The USA will compete with super star Andy Roddick and James Blake, two of the current Top Ten players. Even though it is not yet known who will represent the US team in the doubles, it is no secret that the Bryan twins, the leading doubles team in men's tennis for the past four years, are never far from wherever Roddick and Blake happen to be.
With Mikhail Youzhny and Igor Andreev, Russia has also named two players who competed in the Davis Cup final.
Kohlschreiber and Kiefer will represent Germany in the singles. After a one year long injury break, 30-year-old Kiefer will thus play again at the ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP. At his last appearance the German team lost the final to Croatia, in 2005 Kiefer was part of the team that grabbed the title – just like in 1998 when he competed for the first time at the Tennis World Team Championship. Thus, he might become the first ever player to win the World Team Championship title three times.
Germany's Team captain Patrik Kuehnen will announce the other players in April.
Once again the German public TV station WDR will be host broadcaster. WDR head of sports Steffen Simon, one of the initiators of the change of system, highly welcomes the new format: "Of course we greatly appreciate the fact that every team - and thus the German team - will play on every day", Steffen Simon said at a press conference in Duesseldorf. During the tournament week, WDR plans to broadcast a total of 26 hours of tennis, thereof more than 22 hours live.
The prize money at the 2008 ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP remains unchanged and amounts again to a total of 1,5 million Euro. The eight teams will be seeded into two groups with four teams each. A tie – and this is new – will now be played over two days. The respective winners of each group will then play the Championship final on Saturday, May 24.
31st ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP – Participating nations: USA (Andy Roddick, James Blake), Spain (David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro), Russia (Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev), Argentina (Guillermo Canas, Juan Ignacio Chela), Germany (Philipp Kohlschreiber, Nicolas Kiefer), Italy (Potito Starace, Filippo Volandri), Sweden (Robi Soderling, Thomas Johansson), Czech Republic (Tomas Berdych, Jiri Vanek).
Duesseldorf (pps)
