Daniell returns to Davis Cup squad

Marcus Daniell has made it back into the New Zealand Davis Cup team, at the expense of Finn Tearney.

New Zealand play South Korea at the ASB Tennis Arena in Auckland on April 7-9 in the Asia/Oceania group one tie.

The team lost to India 4-1 in February in Pune and another defeat would leave them in danger of being relegated to Asia/Oceania group two for the first time since 2013.

With New Zealand having three world-class doubles specialists in Artem Sitak, Daniell and Michael Venus, plus singles players Rubin Statham and Finn Tearney there is always going to be one player missing out for each Davis Cup team.

For the tie against India it was Daniell who missed out with the team’s captain, Alistair Hunt choosing to play Statham and Tearney in the singles and Venus and Sitak as his doubles combination.

But Hunt has had a change of tack for South Korea and it’s likely to be Daniell and Sitak playing in the doubles rubber on Saturday, with Venus and Statham as the singles players.

Sitak, who is the New Zealand singles champion, as well as the doubles champion with Daniell, enjoys playing on centre court at the ASB Tennis Arena and feels the court will give them more of an advantage than when they play at their other regular New Zealand venue, at Wilding Park in Christchurch.

‘‘Here and Christchurch are really good, Christchurch has an amazing atmosphere and a lot of people come out to watch,’’ he said.

Korea are likely to be led by 20-year-old Hyeon Chung who is ranked 91 in the world with a career high of 51. The South Korean No 2 is Duckhee Lee ranked 135.

Statham has a singles ranking of 392, while Venus is at 1027 because he rarely plays this form of the game. Venus has a doubles ranking of 40, while Daniell is at 43 and Sitak is 54.