Tunisia first up for Britain in Davis Cup

Britain will be at home for the Europe/Africa Group 2 meeting and will be fancied to claim a straightforward victory regardless of whether world No 4 Andy Murray makes himself available for Leon Smith's team.

Britain will need to secure three wins next year to secure promotion back to the Europe/Africa Group 1, and victory over their African opponents would set up a meeting against Luxembourg or Ireland in the second round.

Marek Jaziri, ranked 420th in the world, is the only Tunisian player inside the world's top 1,000, but Britain can boast seven players above him in the world standings.

Kazakhstan received a tough draw for their first-ever Davis Cup World Group tie when they were handed a visit to the Czech Republic next March.

Kazakhstan earned a berth in the Davis Cup's top tier last weekend with a stunning 5-0 whitewash over Switzerland in Astana in the play-offs.

Playing as an independent nation since 1995, Kazakhstan were stuck in the Asia/Oceania Group 3 as recently as 2004, and made it into Group 1 in 2007, then overcame South Korea and China this year to line up their chance to compete in the World Group.

Switzerland arrived in Kazakhstan without Roger Federer, but US Open quarter-finalist Stanislas Wawrinka was expected to lead the Swiss to victory. Instead, the Swiss are back in the Europe/Africa Zone.

The Czechs were runners-up in 2009 and narrowly lost to Serbia in the semi-finals last Sunday.

The United States will travel to Chile, drawing South American opponents in the first round for the second year in a row. The US or Chile will then face the powerful Spaniards or outsiders Belgium in the quarter-finals.

Davis Cup finalists Serbia will open against India at home. Fellow finalists France will travel to Austria to kick off next year's campaign. The first round is from 4-6 March and the quarter-finals are set for 8-10 July.