Ly Hoang Nam will kick off Vietnam’s three-day Davis Cup’s Group II, Asia-Oceania zone campaign against Kittiphong Wachiramanowong of Thailand at the National Tennis Development Centre, Nonthaburi today.

Nam is world No 870 while Wachiramanowong is No 933, he used to be world No 249. Nam, the 2015 Wimbledon boys’ doubles winner, will then take charge of the fourth match against No 904 Pruchya Isarow.

“I’ve met Wachiramanowong twice and lost both matches. But this time I hope to play at my best and I am confident of beating him,” Nam said.

“My teammates and I are in good nick. This will help us against a strong rival such as Thailand.”

The second and fifth singles matches see Nguyen Hoang Thien take on Isarow and Wachiramanowong, respectively.

Thien, who has not played an international competition for a long time, is out of the top 1,000. However in his return to the national team in March Thiên defeated an Indonesian top 1,000 player 3-2 in the first round of this tournament.

On Saturday, unranked duo Nguyen Dac Tien and Pham Minh Tuan will play brothers Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana who are No 112 in the ATP’s men’s doubles ranking, and just returned home from the Wimbledon event.

The Thai duo is called ‘The Wonder Twins’ of Asia. They have been competing in the ATP system for years and are among the top 100 pairs.

Vietnam captain Nguyen Quoc Bao said there were 50 per cent to win for his team who worked hard in Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei for training and competing.

Thai captain Vittaya Somrej said his team had prepared well for the events for the past three weeks and none of his players were suffering from any injuries.

He said it would not be an easy task but Thai players were experienced and strong.

Speaking at the draw yesterday, Isarow said his team received good advice from senior pair Sonchat and Sanchai and strongly believed that Thailand would beat Vietnam.

The winner of these matches will advance to the third round and meet either Chinese Taipei or the Philippines.

VNS