There were few surprises up Swiss tennis captain Jakob Hlasek's sleeve on Monday, as he named the country's squad for the Davis Cup tie versus the United States. As expected, Swiss number one Marc Rosset will not be playing, after saying he would not be available.

Hlasek picked the country's number two player Roger Federer, and number three George Bastl. The other two squad members are Michel Kratochvil, Swiss number three, and number seven player Lorenzo Manta.

The Swiss captain's US counterpart, Patrick McEnroe, has had more difficulty picking his squad for the Febuary 9-11 clash. Both Pete Sampras and Australian Open winner André Agassi have said they will not play.

Jakob Hlasek said he expected McEnroe to pick Todd Martin and Jan-Michael Gambill for the singles. Hlasek said that facing a US team minus the likes of Sampras or Agassi would raise Switzerland's chances of making it into the Davis Cup's second round, where they would expect a clash against France or Belgium.

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