The Philippine Davis Cup team remains upbeat as it faces Kazakhstan in a crucial tie Friday at the National Tennis Center in Astana City.

Team captain Chris Cuarto said the draw, which sends No.1 Cecil Mamiit against Yuriy Schukin in the opening singles, was favorable to the Philippines because the last time the Fil-Am played the first match, the Filipinos defeated Kuwait in the Group II finals last year.

Cuarto picked veteran Johnny Arcilla to play the second singles against Andre Golubev while Yannick Guba and PJ Tierro were named as the doubles team against Schukin and Golubev. The line-up, however, could be changed one hour before the match.

In an email, Randy Villanueva of the Philippine Tennis Association said the team would “just have a light practice” on the eve of the cup tie and then rest.

The Kazakhstan squad will clearly have the homecourt advantage making the Filipinos task all the more difficult since the Kazakhs have chosen to play on the slower clay courts because they recruited players from Europe, both of whom were former Russian citizens.

The 29-year-old Shukin is ranked No. 152 in the world in singles and 176 in doubles while the 21-year-old Golubev is ranked No. 137 in singles and 535 in doubles. Mamiit is ranked No. 418 in singles and 517 in doubles while the 28-year-old Arcilla is unranked in the singles.

The Filipinos will also have to contend with the cold weather which is around 10 degrees Celsius but had an opportunity to get used to the weather since they arrived in Astana City last Saturday.

The RP team captain said the squad had trained hard with Mamiit training in the US although they will clearly miss Eric Taino, the stylish lefty who has decided to get into coaching.