KARACHI, March 29: Pakistan’s Davis Cup coach Rashid Malik has urged his players not to show any complacency and train hard for next month’s Davis Cup assignment in Tehran.

Pakistan are the top seeds and hot favourites to win the title in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-III contest to be held in the Iranian capital from April 9-13.

With their top star Aisamul-Haq Qureshi ready to make his Davis Cup comeback, Pakistan are itching to get to the clay courts of Tehran and regain a place in the 2009 Group II contest by winning the eight-nation contest.

But Rashid is not taking anything for granted and says that the presence of potentially-dangerous teams like Vietnam, Malaysia and Sri Lanka can make the task of winning the title quite difficult.

“We cannot take anything for granted,” the former Pakistan champion said on Saturday. “Teams like Vietnam can be dangerous on their day which is why we will have to make tough preparations before going to Iran,” he added.

Pakistan have been strengthened by the return of Aisam, one of Asia’s best tennis players. The Pakistanis recorded some memorable results in their 2005 Davis Cup campaign to reach the World Group Playoffs for the first time but since then it has all been downhill for them.

It was Aisam, who helped Pakistan reach the Davis Cup World Group qualifiers by recording key wins against top players from formidable teams like New Zealand, Thailand, Korea and China.

He also featured in Pakistan’s 2-3 defeat against formidable India in a thrilling 2006 clash in Mumbai but has since been unavailable for national duty.

In his absence, Pakistan have fared poorly on the Davis Cup stage and from being the Asia-Oceania Group-I champions in 2005, they have been relegated to Group-III following successive defeats against India, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, New Zealand, China and even minnows Pacific Oceania during the last couple of years.

Pakistan would be among the major contenders for the title in Tehran where the competing teams include hosts Iran, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

Under the format, the eight teams will be divided into two pools. The top two nations from each pool will advance to a further round-robin pool of four, from which the teams finishing first and second will be promoted to Asia-Oceania Group II in 2009.

The bottom two nations in each pool also advance to a further round-robin pool of four, from which the teams finishing third and fourth will relegated to Asia-Oceania Zone Group IV.

Rashid said that it is his aim to help Pakistan regain their place in Group-I.

Pakistan are scheduled to leave for Tehran on April 4 via Karachi and will play their opening match of the tournament on April 9.—Agencies