Tennis: Jones and Erakovic in NZ Fed Cup team

Marina Erakovic and Sacha Jones spearhead the New Zealand Fed Cup tennis team who left today to contest the Asia/Oceania competition in Kuala Lumpur.

Ellen Barry makes up the three-woman team who will contest group one competition next week against Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Thailand and Uzbekistan. Dianne Hollands was originally named but was forced to withdraw for personal reasons.

New Zealand are seeded third behind Japan and Uzbekistan for the four-day event starting on Wednesday.

They have finished runners-up in each of the last two years. In 2008 they lost the final to Uzbekistan and fell at the final hurdle against Australia last year.

The winning team will be promoted to the world group two playoffs in April.