The Pacific Oceania women's tennis team is being backed to hold their own in next month's Fed Cup tie in India.
Samoa's Steffi Carruthers is the highest-ranked player selected at 999 in the world, alongside Cook Islands representative Brittany Teei and Papua New Guinea pair Abigail Tere-Apisah and her niece, 15 year old Violet Apisah.
Oceania Tennis vice president Cyrille Mainguy says university commitments in the US meant some players were unavailable for selection but he still believes the team chosen will prove competitive next month in Hyderabad.
"However we've got our top two players in Oceania, being Abigail Tere-Apisah, who finished her studies in the US, and Steffi Carruthers from Samoa. It's been a while since we've had a Fed Cup team for Oceania so I think the whole region is pretty excited about it. We wish we could have had other girls like Annie Shannon or Tarani [Kamoe] or Marcia Tere-Apisah as well but they're all in the States so the timing is not perfect but I'm sure they will do great and make OTF proud".
Pacific Oceania last entered a Fed Cup team in 2004.
