Group A will consist of Australia, India, New Zealand, and Indonesia.

There will be two pools with four teams each. The winners of each pool will playoff for the right to advance to the World Group II Playoffs in April 2008. The nations to finish fourth in each pool will playoff against one another, with the losing team dropping down to Asia/Oceania Zone Group II in 2009.

On paper, at this stage at least, in order to avoid having to playoff for Group I survival, HK will need to beat, at the minimum, either Thailand or Uzbekistan, as Taiwan has two players ranked in the WTA Top-100 in singles and three in the Top-50 in doubles.

Jessica Yang, fresh from her participation at the Australian Open Junior Championships, will be making her Fed Cup debut in the absence of Venise Chan, who had prior commitments in the US.

HKTA General Manager, Mrs. Janet Hardisty, offered some words of encouragement, saying, "We wish the girls the best of luck. They are obviously up against some of Asia's very top players but we hope they can emulate last year's great performance. We will certainly be cheering them on from Hong Kong."

According to Alistair Todd, who is going along as the travelling coach together with Fed Cup Captain Venant Shum and the rest of the team, said, "Training has been going well. Zhang Ling has been training strongly and has bounced back well following her surgery to remove plantar warts from her feet and is hitting a very good ball. Lam Po Kuen has also been training certain evenings during the week to work around her work schedule, and has been improving well with each session. Yang Zi-Jun has just returned from her three weeks in Australia playing the junior series down there, so is also in good touch."

This year's Group I opposition is clearly much stronger than last year's, as evidenced by the presence of No. 1 seed Australia, who got relegated after successive 4-1 defeats to Austria and Ukraine in 2007.

The highest ranked player competing in Bangkok this week is new Asian No. 1, Sania Mirza (WTA 29), who displaced China's Li Na (WTA 32) from the top after Li Na's shock loss to Polish qualifier Marta Domachowska in the third round at the Aussie Open.

Another qualifier, Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei, however, managed to hack her way to the fourth round at Melbourne Park before being stopped by world No. 1 Justin Henin. In doing so, the 22-year-old became the first player from Chinese Taipei to reach the fourth round of the women's singles at a Grand Slam. Some of her illustrious predecessors such as Wang Shi-Ting and Janet Lee have never ventured beyond the third round in singles at the majors.

The Fed Cup Rankings for the respective Group I teams are as follows:

18. Australia
20. Chinese Taipei
21. India
22. Thailand
27. Uzbekistan
35. New Zealand
39. Indonesia
40. Hong Kong

Team Nominations
As at 22 January 2008
(Brackets denote WTA Singles and Doubles Ranking)

AUSTRALIA
Alicia Molik (S68, D12), Nicole Pratt (S90, D63), Casey Dellacqua (S57, D119), Rennae Stubbs (D8)
Captain: David Taylor

CHINESE TAIPEI
Chan Yung-Jan (S66, D11), Hsieh Su-Wei (S95, D44), Chan Chin-Wei (S230, D153), Chuang Chia-Jung (S414, D10)
Captain: Wang Shi-Ting

INDONESIA
Sandy Gumulya (S239, D304), Lavinia Tananta (S561, D378), Ayu Fani Damayanti (S600, D475), Vivien Silfany (S823, D461)
Captain: Suzanna Anggarkusuma

THAILAND
Tamarine Tanasugarn (S108, D74), Nudnida Luangnam (S334, D1002), Suchanun Viratprasert (S555), Napaporn Tongsalee (S562, D445)
Captain: Pracharapol Khamsaman

UZBEKISTAN
Akgul Amanmuradova (S97, D111), Iroda Tulyaganova (S315, D435), Vlada Ekshibarova (S406, D694), Albina Khabibulina (S1040)
Captain: Samuk Abidov

INDIA
Sania Mirza (S29, D23), Sunitha Rao (S195, D122), Isha Lakhani (S349, D457), Tara Iyer (S375, D311)
Captain: Enrico Piperno

NEW ZEALAND
Marina Erakovic (S149, D175), Sacha Jones (S313), Ellen Barry (S384, D487), Leanne Baker (S395, D160)
Captain: David Lewis

HONG KONG
Zhang Ling (S411, D480), Yang Zi-Jun, Lam Po Kuen
Captain: Venant Shum