Italians check in ahead of Davis Cup qualifiers

Kolkata, Jan 27 (IANS) World number 18 Marco Cecchinato along with other Italian Davis Cup team members arrived here this morning ahead of their qualifiers against hosts India at the South Club, scheduled to be held from February 1-2.The team will be led by non-playing captain Corrado Barazzutti.Italy will miss the services of top-ranked Fabio Fognini, who has ruled himself out to recover from an injury.Cecchinato, who stunned Novak Djokovic in the 2018 French Open quarterfinals and made a first round exit at the Australian Open against Serbia's Filip Krajinovic, is expected to hurt India most on the opening day of the tie.World number 35 Andreas Seppi will be the next best bet for the Italians. The other members of the contingent include Matteo Berrettini, Thomas Fabbiano and Simone Bolelli.A total of 24 teams will play in the knockout qualifiers on February 1, 2 to decide which 12 teams playing here will play the year-end finals.Twelve winners from the qualifiers here will join six other teams for the 18-team finals in Madrid in November this year.According to the new format, only four semi-finalists from the 2018 season along with two wild cards -- Argentina and Britain - have a direct entry.
--IANS dm/kk/bg