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Australian veteran John Millman will play the opening singles match of the Davis Cup tie against Bosnia and Herzegovina starting on Friday in Adelaide.
John Millman feels a deep sense of responsibility to kickstart Australia's campaign to return to the Davis Cup elite.
But Millman says he won't be burdened by the pressure of delivering Australia a first-up win in the Davis Cup tie against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday.
Millman has been drawn to play Bosnia's top-ranked and world No.52 Damir Dzumhur in the opening singles match at Adelaide's Memorial Drive.
Australia's No.1 Alex de Minaur, ranked 28th in the world, will meet world No.99 Mirza Basic in the second singles match.
World No.36 Millman has played Dzumhur twice - and lost twice - on the ATP Tour.
"I have definitely identified it as a really big opportunity to send that message that we're Australians and we're playing in our home country and we're here to play," Millman told reporters on Thursday.
"So I'm looking forward to getting things up and rolling and I see it as a responsibility for myself to steer the ship in the right direction."
Australia is seeking to be among a dozen winners of cup ties around the world this weekend featuring 24 nations - the victors join six automatic qualifiers at the cup finals in Madrid in late November.
The Australians have railed against changes to the cup format - scrapping home-and-away ties, and reducing matches to best-of-three sets over two days instead of the traditional five-setters over three days.
Team captain Lleyton Hewitt has led a chorus of disapproval but said the focus was now solely on returning Australia to its rightful Davis Cup status.
"We want to play in whatever the best competitions are, and against the best countries in the world," Hewitt told reporters on Thursday.
"It's pretty important as a grand slam nation to be there on the big stage."
Hewitt has paired John Peers and Jordan Thompson for Saturday's doubles match against Tomislav Brkic and Basic, to be played before reverse singles matches.
Without controversial duo Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, Hewitt was buoyed by the team spirit of the Australians.
"We're not going to win every time. But we're going to go out there and have a crack," Hewitt said.
"These boys set a pretty high standard for themselves but also for their country.
"For guys like me and (Davis Cup mentor Tony Roche) Rochey that hold this competition and playing for your country so highly and as a priority, it's something that makes me pretty proud."
