Door still open for Assri

THE Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) are keeping the door open for Assri Merzuki.

LTAM secretary Rahizam Rahim said they are willing to consider him for the Davis Cup in the Asia-Oceania Group III competition in April if he decides to return to the national team.

The former national champion quit competitive tennis after helping Malaysia to a bronze in the team event at the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games in August to pursue a career in coaching in Thailand.

“The Davis Cup will be held in April (in Vietnam) this year and we will begin our preparations from next month. We have a number of programmes lined up for the players,” said Rahizam yesterday.

“We want the best to represent the country in both the Davis Cup and Fed Cup which is why we are leaving the door open for him to come back.

“He will, however, have to play in a qualifying tournament first as we need to gauge where his current level of performance is. We need to be fair to all the players.”

Syed Agil Syed Naguib and Ahmed Deedat Abdul Razak are also likely to be part of the team.

Malaysia will have Cambodia, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Vietnam for company in the round robin competition.

Rahizam added that the national players earmarked for the Davis Cup and Fed Cup squads will be sent for a series of ITF Futures tournaments in Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand as part of their preparation.

Malaysia are competing in the Asia-Oceania Group II competition in the Fed Cup in Bahrain in February.

Other teams competing in the division are Bahrain, Indonesia, Iran, Kyrgyztan, Lebanon, New Zeland, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Rahizam said that Jawairiah Noordin and S. Theviya, who both struggled with injuries in the second half of this year, have returned to full fitness and should be ready to play in the Fed Cup. Fadhli Ishak