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The men's team competition made its debut in
cities around Australia last year but will be truncated and
played only at Melbourne Park from Feb. 1-5 because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
It will, however, offer the players their first competitive
outings after the 14 days of hotel quarantine they had to
undergo ahead of the Australian Open, which starts on Feb. 8.
Djokovic led Serbia to the inaugural title with a victory over
Rafa Nadal's Spain in Sydney last year but his path to a return
to the final was not helped by a tough draw in Group A.
The Germany team will be spearheaded by Alexander Zverev, while
Denis Shapovalov is the standout player in a Canada side also
featuring Milos Raonic.
The winning team from each of the four first-round groups will
go directly into the semi-finals.
Nadal's Spain team will play Greece and Australia in Group B, an
easier draw given the Greeks have little depth beneath world
number six Stefanos Tsitsipas and the hosts will be without Nick
Kyrgios.
Kyrgios paid the price for a year of inaction because of
COVID-19 concerns when his world ranking slipped to 46, leaving
Alex de Minaur to lead the home side.
Kyrgios has since slipped another place to 47th.
Dominic Thiem's Austria were the top seed in Group C and they
will face Italy and France, while Russia will be favourites to
top Group D ahead of Argentina and Japan.
Russia are the only team with two top 10 players in their side
in Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, while Argentina and Japan
are led by world number nine Diego Schwartzman and world number
41 Kei Nishikori respectively.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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