Australia's bid to rejoin the Davis Cup World Group has been boosted by the announcement that Lleyton Hewitt will lead the team that will take on Belgium in Cairns later this month.
Hewitt has joined Carsten Ball, Peter Luczak and Paul Hanley in the side that will contest the tie for a spot in the competition's elite.
Also included in the squad are orange boy Ben Mitchell and Marinko Matosevic who will act as the hitting partner during the tie that begins on September 17.
"We are confident that we have a good strong team capable of winning our way back into the World Group," Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald said.
"We have been building toward this tie all year and will be well and truly ready to go by the time we hit Cairns."
The 536th ranked Chris Guccione was not included in the side with Davis Cup coach Todd Woodbridge suggesting that Hanley's flexibility won him the spot.
"We know that Paul's very adaptable with anybody and the doubles facet is going to be really important here," Woodbridge said.
Woodbridge said that he was happy with Guccione's endeavour but it wasn't enough to win him selection.
"I've been really happy with the effort he's put in. Unfortunately he needed another couple of matches to be picked."
"There's also the fact he's getting married next weekend and wouldn't have arrived back into Cairns until the Wednesday (before the Friday start)."
With Hanley set to play doubles it appears that the 118th-ranked Luczak and 145th-ranked Ball will fight it out for the second singles spot.
Hewitt has won 35 singles matches in Davis Cup history for Australia but was recently a first-round loser to Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu at the US Open.
Australia were relegated from the World Group after losing to Serbia in 2007 and found themselves in the second-tier Asia-Oceania regional zone after losing 3-2 to Chile in 2008 and forfeiting in India last year because of security concerns.
Belgium's Xavier Malisse will not participate in the tie due to personal issues but Belgium are expected to name Olivier Rochus and Steve Darcis to play singles who are ranked 74th and 105th respectively.