Dubai: Omar Bahroozian, the main stay in UAE tennis has reiterated that only absolute teamwork can help the country achieve its ambitions at next week’s Asia-Oceania Group III Davis Cup encounter in Sri Lanka.

The UAE squad of five players returned from France on Thursday, and will depart one week early for an acclimatisation camp along with non-playing captain Mahmoud Khalifa Al Baloushi, coach Hisham Bramly and former player Mahmoud Nader Al Baloushi at the Queen’s Club in Colombo on Sunday morning.

Bahroozian, who was part of the national squad training on the clay courts of Paris for the past one month, first represented the UAE in 1996 in the UAE’s failed campaign from Group III playing against Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Bangladesh and Lebanon.

More than two decades later, Bahroozian has to still carry the Davis Cup hopes of a nation, something that the 35-year-old is more than happy to do. However, he also sees the need for the juniors within the side to step things up for the sake of the country.

“I’ve always maintained that I will play for my country till I can. During the past few years we lost senior members such as Mahmoud Nader and Mahmoud Khalifa from the squad. But now we have a completely new set of youngsters, who I feel will need time to reach a certain level while playing an important competition like the Davis Cup. If at all we need to keep improving then we need this new crop to assume responsibility and step up to the challenges,” Bahroozian noted.

Since his debut, Bahroozian has played 131 matches for the UAE, winning 89 and losing 42. “It has been a long time for me personally and I can’t be expected to play forever. I feel we are at a very crucial stage with our national team where we have experience on one hand, and youth on the other. So given this combination, the only way perhaps to be successful is to work as a team. I cannot be expected to play singles and doubles on all three days. I would expect the youngsters to slowly take over,” Bahroozian stressed.

The nine participating teams will be divided into two uneven groups of five and four when play gets under way at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association’s clay courts in Colombo on July 17. The top two teams will be promoted to Group II, while the last two teams will be relegated to Group IV for the 2018 season.

The nine teams competing in Group III include Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pacific Oceania, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkmenistan and the UAE.

Bahroozian will be accompanied by Hamad Abbas Al Janahi — featuring in his first competition after serving a two-year ITF ban — Fahad Al Janahi and Abdul Rahman Al Janahi, while Faris Al Janahi will be part of the squad so as to get vital experience.