New Zealand Davis Cup Team named to play Finland

Kiranpal Pannu will potentially make his debut for New Zealand in next month’s Davis Cup World Group 1 tie against Finland in Helsinki.

Captain Kelly Evernden has included the 25-year-old who is at a career high of 747 in the ATP singles rankings having started the year ranked 1463. Pannu joins experienced doubles players world number 9 Michael Venus and Artem Sitak, and young singles players Ajeet Rai (23) and Isaac Becroft. (21)

Isaac Becroft has been playing on the ITF circuit and has been in strong form, reaching the semi-finals in Caloundra in Australia last weekend after beating the third seed in the quarter finals. 

Ajeet Rai with an ATP ranking of 787 has been playing a series of ITF tournaments in the US in the past couple of months. He showed his potential in a 6-4 6-2 loss to former world number 19 Pablo Cuevas in New Zealand's win over Uruguay in Las Vegas in March.

Evernden said, “All of these young players have shown effort and improvement since the last Tie, so we have to reward their effort.  I am excited to work with and get to know these players better to see what we have going forward”.

Finland will be difficult opponents and are expected to be spearheaded by world number 46 ranked singles player Emil Ruusuvuori with their second ranked player Otto Virtanen ranked 272.

The Tie will be played 16 and 17 September 2022.