JŪRMALA, Latvia — Latvia’s Davis Cup tennis team is gearing up to take on Slovenia over the course of this weekend, a game that will determine which group the country competes in next year.

Latvia’s marquee player, Ernests “The Gull” Gulbis will be hoping to find a return to form when he returns to Davis Cup tennis today after a series of indifferent performance of late on the ATP men’s tour. Gulbis’ recent slump has seen him just drop out of the world’s top 100 singles players, but The Gull’s flying in good form in the Davis Cup.

Last year Latvia competed in the Europe/Africa group I, but was relegated back to group II after failing to secure a win. Latvia has looked a lot more comfortable in group II, cruising to victories over Moldova and Bulgaria. Victory over Slovenia this weekend would assure the country a return to Europe/Africa group I next season.

Like Latvia, Slovenia have also been recently untried to date this season with comfortable victories over Lithuania and Egypt. They did not lose a tie in those two outings. Slovenia’s hope lies in the hands of singles specialists Grega Zemlja and Blaz Kavcic who have current world ranking of 185 and 279 respectively. The Slovenians do not have any doubles specialists of note.

In singles aside from The Gull, Latvia’s next highest-ranked player is world number 251 Andis Juška. The Latvians do however fare a little better in doubles rankings with Deniss Pavlovs ranked 166 in the world. It is a possibility that The Gull will team up with Pavlovs for the doubles tomorrow, as well as playing singles today and on Sunday.