New Zealand get home Davis Cup tie against Bulgaria

New Zealand tennis fans will be able to watch our Davis Cup players in a home tie for the first time since March 2020 next year. Kelly Evernden’s side has been drawn at home to Bulgaria in the World Group 1 Play-offs with the tie to be held on the 3-4 or 4-5 February.

The Kiwis are coming off a 5-0 defeat by Finland in Helsinki in their World Group 1 tie and will need to beat Bulgaria to avoid relegation to a World Group 2 tie in September. The winner will compete in a World Group 1 tie in September.

On paper it will be another difficult tie for New Zealand with Bulgarian number one Grigor Dimitrov ranked 23 in the world. The 31 year old has been as high as 3 in 2017. However he hasn’t played a Davis Cup tie since 2016. What could be different this time is he will be in Australia for the Australian Open which finishes the week before the Davis Cup tie and heading across the Tasman could be more tempting for him.

Bulgaria’s number two ranked player Dimitar Kuzmanov is ranked 169 in the world while they have two other players inside the top 350.

New Zealand played in Finland with Ajeet Rai (684) Kiranpal Pannu (717) and Isaac Becroft (1019) in the singles rubbers.

A venue for the tie will be chosen later this year.