India gets bye in first round for next year's Davis Cup

London: Top seeded India today got a bye in the first round of next year's Davis Cup in the Asia/Oceania group I as draw was made for the competition, dubbed as World Cup of tennis. India had lost to hosts Canada 2-3 in the World Group play-offs in Edmonton to get back to Asian zone. Featuring in the top half of the draw, China will hosts New Zealand in their first round and India will take on the winner of the February 2-4 tie in the second round. It will be an away tie for India since they have already hosted China (March, 2005 in New Delhi) and New Zealand (February, 2017 in Pune). The second round will be held from April 6-8. India have made four attempts in a row to make to the elite-16-nation World Group but could not cross the hurdle. India lost to Serbia (2014), Czech Republic (2015) and Spain (2016) before losing to Canada this year. In the bottom half of the draw, Pakistan have been drawn against Korea while second seed Uzbekistan have got a bye.