General / Editor / 23 May 2007 /

Hosts Germany chase their fifth ARAG World Team Championships in Dusselforf this week - and injury to Tommy Haas has put 23-year-old Philipp Kohlschreiber at the forefront of their bid.

The right-hander from Augsburg got his team off to a winning start on Sunday when he beat Belgium's Olivier Rochus 6-3 1-6 6-1 in a 98-minute duel as the Germans chalked up a 3-0 win.

Kohlschreiber, playing his third World Team Cup, was meeting Rochus for the second time in team action in a matter of weeks. They clashed in the Davis Cup quarter-finals in April when the German won in straight sets.

Since then he has gone on to win his first career title and climbed to a career best No 32 in the world rankings.

That big tournament breakthrough came in Munich at the start of this month when he dropped just one set - in the final - in disposing of quality opposition.

The talented youngster began by beating experienced Frenchman Arnaud Clement then knocked out Finnish No 1 Jarkko Nieminen. In the quarter-finals another Frenchman, Sebastien Grosjean, fell by the wayside before he toppled Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus to book his place in the final.

There he dropped the opening set against Mikhail Youzhny before hitting back to take the title 2-6 6-3 6-4 in 121 minutes.

Quarter-final efforts in Auckland and Rotterdam earlier in the year had set him up for his breakthrough win. Now he wants to repeat the performance.

But for this week he is simply enjoying the responsibility of being at the forefront of Germany's cup bid, saying: "I gladly take up the challenge to play as No 1 against the other No 1 players, following Tommy Haas's withdrawal."

His win helped Germany go top of the Blue Group as they chase a third consecutive final appearance. They won the cup in 2005 and lost to Croatia in last year's final.

Next up Germany will face Spain on Wednesday and the Czech Republic on Friday and that will pit Kohlshreiber against David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych, two players in the world's top 15 who will be ready to test him to the full.

But his race up the rankings - he broke into the top 60 for the first time last year on the back of 24 match wins - means he is one to watch and he is now looking to make a further surge up towards the top 20. He prefers clay and hard courts but lost more than he won last year on those surfaces compared to a 4-3 record on grass.

With the French Open just a few days away he will be hoping for third time lucky. In 2005 on his debut he went out in the first round and last year lost to 2003 Roland Garros champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round.

Last year on his second visit to Wimbledon he reached the third round before losing to Nieminen on a fourth-set tiebreak.

But the future looks bright and this week's tests against the No 1s of the opposing teams will help him build for the future.

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