NAIROBI, Sept 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is under pressure to duplicate last year's performance in the Davis Cup Africa Group III tournament that starts in Nairobi on Wednesday.
The eight-team tournament will see the top two teams secure promotion to Euro/Africa Davis Cup group II.
Kenya stunned Mozambique, Algeria and Uganda in Pool B in last year's competition and went on to beat top-seeds Benin in the playoffs to join Namibia as joint winners and got promoted to Davis Cup Europe/Africa Group II.
However, their hopes of promotion were stopped by International Tennis Federation (ITF) over change of administration and sponsors.
However, Tennis Kenya Administrator Susan Adhiambo says the team will rekindle the same spirit as they take on Tunisia, Namibia, Algeria, Mozambique, Madagascar, Benin and Nigeria.
"The pressure is on us. We hope the training has instilled in our players the confidence to withstand stage fright on the courts and to polish their skills. The boys are looking better but we need the Kenyan crowd to come and support us," Kenya's coach Rosemary Owino said on Tuesday.
"My players are now more experienced than they were last year, and they are positive about the tournament," Owino added.
All the teams arrived in Nairobi on Monday and the draws has been done on Tuesday by the tournament's referee Anton Rens from South Africa assisted by Kenya's Patrick Kamuhia. The last team to arrive was Namibia.
The draw is conducted based on the seeding of each team with each of the two pools having four teams.
The current ranking of the teams are as follows - Tunisia 70, Kenya 76, Benin 80, Namibia 81, Nigeria 88, Algeria 90, Mozambique 105 and Madagascar 111.
Kenyan team has ended its residential training camp on Monday and having returned home just a week ago from the Africa Games in Morocco. They also had a month's training camp in Valencia, Spain.
The team will be captained by senior coach Rosemary Owino, who will be looking to bring similar results from last year event when Kenya hosted and won the playoff against Benin.
The Kenyan team has Ismail Changawa, Kevin Cheruiyot, Ibrahim Kibet and Albert Njogu.
