China's Davis Cup head coach Xie Zhao revealed his team may well stun home fans in their showdown against Japan despite the higher rankings of Japan's players.

The Asia/Oceania Zone Group I first round starts in Beijing today with victory in the best-of-five tie needed to keep China's World Group dream alive.

"I know fans are expecting something from us, especially as our women's players are shining on the WTA Tour," Xie told China Daily.

"We may be short of champions but the men's team has improved tremendously so I am looking forward to surprising the fans and media at the weekend."

China defeated Pakistan in the Group I relegation playoff to stay in the top tier this season, but Japan threatens to prove too tough. In their two previous meetings in 1994 and 2006, China were thrashed 5-0 both times.

The teams' latest clash was at the Doha Asian Games last December, where Japan beat China 2-1 in the second round of the team event.

This does not affect Xie's belief that his team can win.

"We're playing on our home court, that's a big advantage for us," said Xie. "I think we are better prepared as we have been training on this court for a month."

Leading the Chinese team will be the country's No 1 Yu Xinyuan, ranked No. 479 on the ATP Tour and Sun Peng, No. 692. National champions Zeng Shaoxuan and Yu Xinyuan, who reached the semifinals at the doubles event at the China Open last year, will play the doubles tie.

Japan's No 1 is Go Soeda, ranked No 188 in the world, who will be joined in singles by World 193 Yuichi Sugita. Takao Suzuki, with the national best win-loss record (30-18), will team up with Satoshi Iwabushi in the doubles.

China, which has 30 wins in 69 Davis Cup appearances, trails 6-1 head-to-head, with the only victory coming back in 1987.

The country has twice now been one match away from the World Group: it lost to New Zealand in the 1974 Eastern Zone final and to Israel in the 1990 World Group playoffs, its best Davis Cup performances so far.

(China Daily February 9, 2007)