Düsseldorf (pps) The organisers of the ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP, to played on May 18-24, 2008 at Rochusclub Duesseldorf, can present the first entries for the 31st edition of the Tennis World Team Championship - among them top ten player Mikhail Youzhny. The 25-year-old Russian is currently ranked 8th in the world, his best career-result to date. The right-handed player won the ATP tournament in Chennai (India), defeating Rafael Nadal in the final. At the Australian Open he made it to the quarter-finals (ousted by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga).

Second singles player for the Russian team will be Igor Andreev (ranked 32nd). For the first time since 2002 Russia will be playing again at the Tennis World Team Championship. And this time, Youzhny and Andreev want to finally grab the title - a feat that their predecessors, Kafelnikov and Safin, failed to achieve for three years in a row from 2000 through 2002 when they were defeated in the respective finals.

Thinking about Andreev brings back rather unpleasant memories for the two German top tennis players Tommy Haas and Philipp Kohlschreiber as they both lost their singles matches to the 24-year-old Russian at the Davis Cup semi-final tie last year. Russia won the tie 3-2. Now Haas and Kohlschreiber seek revenge. Presumably, Shamil Tarpichev will be Russia's team captain in Duesseldorf – just like at the Davis Cup in Moscow.

A new system will be introduced at this year's Tennis World Team Championship. A tie between two teams will be played over two days so that each team will now play on every day. Thus, the spectators at the Duesseldorf Rochusclub as well as on TV can be certain that Germany's top players, too, will play daily during the round robin stage.

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The ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP is the ATP Tennis World Team Championship. Since 1978 the event is carried out without interruption at the Duesseldorf Rochusclub, thus it will be the 31st edition this year. Altogether eight teams are fighting for the title. Seven teams are qualified directly according to the ATP rankings of their two best singles players. The eighth team receives a wild card. Two groups with four teams each play in a round-robin system – two singles and one doubles match. The winners of each group advance to the final. "Record winners" with four titles each are Germany, Spain and the USA.

(February 2008)