KARACHI: Pakistan’s top two tennis players will rely on their Davis Cup experience when they meet New Zealand in the Group-II tie at the TSB Hub in Hawera on Friday.

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Aqeel Khan will hold the key for Pakistan in this semi-final clash as the first two of the five matches will be played on the first day of the rubber.

“Aqeel and I have been representing Pakistan at Davis Cup for the last 12 years so we know what we have to do for our country starting tomorrow,” Aisam said while speaking to Dawn.com from Hawera, New Zealand.

Aqeel’s brothers Yasir and Jalil Khan are the other two playing members of the Pakistan squad while Rashid Malik is the team’s non-playing captain. The tie, scheduled from July 9 to 11, was to be played in Pakistan but was shifted to New Zealand by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) due to security concerns.

For the Pakistan team, the biggest difference in playing the tie away from home is that they will be playing on hard courts instead of grass. “Playing on grass would have suited us perfectly and it would have been a big advantage for me as I have been playing grass-court tournaments for the last few weeks,” said Aisam, who recently gave his best-ever Wimbledon performance by reaching the men’s doubles quarterfinals.

The Pakistan squad arrived in Hawera on Sunday, and has been practicing on the hard courts for the last four days.

“New Zealand will be very confident as they are playing at home but sometimes pressure from the home crowd can also give advantage to the opponents.”

The New Zealand squad includes seasoned players like Jose Statham and Marcus Daniell while Austen Childs and Michael Venus, two expatriate players, are also part of the squad.

“We haven’t played these guys before, neither have I seen them play so we will have to adapt our game on the court,” said Aisam.

“They are ranked players and have probably played a number of international tournaments but Davis Cup is completely different from everything else and that is where we hope to bring in our experience,” he added.

The tie gets underway with two singles matches, with the doubles match scheduled for Saturday and the reverse singles scheduled for Sunday.

“Aqeel and I aim to win our respective matches tomorrow and have two points in the bank before our doubles match on Saturday. If we win that, the tie will be over and we would love to give Yasir and Jalil a chance to play the reverse singles on Sunday.”