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Great Britain to host Slovakia in Davis Cup

Leon Smith will hope Andy Murray makes himself available for the Slovakia tie © Getty Images

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Great Britain will enjoy home advantage when they take on Slovakia in next year's Davis Cup.

Having secured promotion to the Euro/Africa Zone Group I with a 5-0 whitewash of Hungary in Glasgow at the weekend, Leon Smith's side have been handed another home tie which will take place in February 2012.

Captain Smith will hope British No. 1 Andy Murray will make himself available for the tie. The world No. 4 helped Britain ease past Hungary by winning both his singles rubbers, although Slovakia will be a tougher encounter.

Slovakia's top player, Karol Beck is ranked No. 75 in the world, while Martin Klizan is also inside the world's top 100. The Slovakian No. 3, Lukas Lacko, is currently at No. 152 in the world but was inside the world's top 60 last year.

While Murray would be expected to beat such opponents, British No. 2 James Ward is the only other Briton inside the world's top 250, and on paper would be the underdog in his singles rubbers.

"The tie against Slovak Republic will be really tough," Smith said. "They have two guys inside the world's top 100 and a third player at 152 so they are strong in singles, but it's doubles where they have some particularly good options with three players inside the top 100.

"That said, with a home tie we'll be able to use the crowd to our advantage which will be really important if we're to get off to a winning start. We know next year will be a real step up, but that's exactly what we aimed for. We wanted to get promotion to Group I so we could play the stronger nations, really test ourselves and show that we can progress within the competition."

EUROPE/AFRICA ZONE GROUP I
Israel v Bye
Portugal v Bye
Belgium v Bye
Great Britain v Slovak Republic
Finland v Netherlands
Bye v Romania
Denmark v Slovenia
Bye v South Africa

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