NAIROBI, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's top seed Kevin Cheruiyot will not be part of the country's team that will compete at the tennis Africa Nations Cup Championship, which will be held in Gaborone, Botswana in November.
Tennis Kenya Vice Chairman Francis Mutuku expressed his disappointment over the withdrawal of Cheruiyot saying the team will use the tournament to warm up for next year's Davis Euro Africa Group Two tournament in February.
The countries that will have their players in the tennis Africa Cup are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Burundi, Rwanda, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Swaziland, Mauritius, Madagascar, Malawi and Angola.
Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, Cheruiyot said he will be away in Australia for a series of tournaments and asked for his omission in the Kenya team, which will be named in a week's time.
Cheruiyot has been in fine form and made the finals of the AMT tournament in Brisbane where he lost to Matthew Woemdle of Australia.
"I am happy with my performance to get into the finals of the two tournaments I was involved in Australia. They are critical because they are used for ranking purposes," said Cheruiyot.
Kenya will name a team of six players for the Africa Nations Cup with top names expected to make the cut including Ibrahim Yego, Ryan Randiek, Ismael Changawa, and Sheil Kotecha.
Other players will also be named to compete in the Africa Futures circuit.
Tennis Kenya wants the players to be exposed to as many tournaments as possible to boost their experience and skills ahead of the Davis Cup assignment.
"We need to help our players get over stage fright as they will be meeting some of the tennis stars in competition," said Mutuku.
Kenya is hopeful to carve a niche in the Davis Cup Euro/Africa circuit having gained promotion to the competition this year. Enditem
