So, the big day arrived and the draw took place in Dubai this year.  All the round one matches for 6 of the 7 groups have been decided, only Europe/Africa Zone II has yet to be drawn, because the matches in that group have not finished yet so the seeds are unknown.

Moving on to the draws that were made.  Starting with Americas Zone II.  The top 2 seeds were placed at the top and bottom of the draw, then seeds 3 & 4 were drawn next, then the countries they would play.  Venezuela as the top seeds were placed in slot one, with Chile as 2nd seeds in slot 8, then El Salvador were placed in slot 3 and Mexico into slot 5.  Then the remaining nations were drawn to play working from the top down.  Costa Rica will face Venezuela with the seeds having choice of venue and surface.  El Salvador will travel to Puerto Rico for their first round tie.  Mexico will host Bolivia, whilst Chile will play host to Peru.

The next group drawn was Oceania group II.  Again in this group there were 8 teams, with the seeds placed first.  Top Seeds will be Chinese Taipei or New Zealand (This match has still to play, with the winners moving up to group I.  Pakistan are 2nd seeds, so they were placed in slot 8, with Philippines and Indonesia making up the remaining seeded spot.  The winers of the Chinese Taipei/New Zealand match will play Lebanon.  As it is not yet known who will play them a "lot" was drawn to decide choice of venue, in case they had not played each other before.  If it is needed this will be a home tie.  Philippines will play host to Sri Lanka, whilst Indonesia will host Iran.  Finally in this group Pakistan will play host to Kuwait.

Next to be decided was Americas group I.  This was a bit of a strange group really as there are only 5 teams actually in it!  So only the top 3 teams are seeded.  Hope you are ready for this group, it is a bit of a confusion.  Columbia (top seeds) have a bye into the QF, as do Uraguay and Ecuador.  The 2 remaining countries were drawn against each other.  Barbados will host Dominican Republic.  Something that was done though was a lot was drawn to see who would play host between Columbia and Uraguay in round 2, Uraguay got the advantage.

Then we moved onto Oceania group I.  There were only 6 teams in this group, so as before the top 2 seeds received byes.  Uzbekistan and India are the lucky teams with the byes straight to the quarter finals.  Korea will have to travel to Thailand, whilst China will face the winners of Chinese Taipei or New Zealand (see Oceania group II), a "lot" was drawn in case it was needed, and if it is then for China it is a home tie.

The penultimate group drawn was Europe/Africa I.  As with previous groups the seeds were placed first with the top 2 seeds at the top and bottom.  The top 3 seeds again received a bye, meaning that Spain (who were relegated from the World group in 2014), Ukraine and Netherlands are the seeds with byes.  The remaining first round matches will be played as follows.  Russia will play host to Netherlands, Austria will play the winner of the Sweden/latvia  tie (still to be completed) - as before, if needed a "lot" was drawn and Austria got the advantage.  An interesting tie with Slovakia hosting Slovenia, to reach the quarter finals.  Israel will travel to Romania and Lithuania face a trip to Poland.

So, we now reached the big one, the World Group.  The finalists from 2014 are the top seeds, so placed in slot one (France) and slot 16 Switzerland.  The remaining seeds were drawn and placed in slots 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 & 14.  So the full draw for this group (which also caused a few giggles and groans from the assembled audience) is as follows.  France will travel to Germany, in a re-match of 2014 first round match USA face Great Britain but this time the Brits have the home advantage and will certainly want to beat the Americans again (Jim Courier in his suit again?), this match up certainly caused amuzement in the audience, as everyone recognised it was a direct repeat of last year. Czech Republic will play host to Australia (this could be an interesting tie, with Nick Kyrigos available).  Italy will have to travel to Kazakhstan, as neither side had played each other before the venue was decided by "lot".  This next match up was one that caused the first of the giggles as on of the South American teams in the group will be going out in the first round as Argentina play host to Brazil.  Another tie that caused hilarity was Serbia playing host to Croatia, so again, one of the countries making up the former Yugoslavia will go out at round 1 stage and have to take part in the play offs.  The next tie caused a groan or gasp, it was difficult to hear really but Canada will play host to Japan, this so Switzerland will have to travel (not very far) to Belgium.

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