Towering American born left-hander Carsten Ball is set to carry a heavy workload for Australia in this weekend's Davis Cup tie against Taiwan in Melbourne.
The 22-year-old, who was born in Newport Beach, California but has chosen to represent the country his father Syd also played Davis Cup for, is set to play both singles and doubles in the first round Asia/Oceania tie.
In the absence of Australia's two highest profile players due to injury in Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione, Ball is set to be the mainstay of the team against Taiwan and is likely to be the second singles player after Peter Luczak for the opening day's singles matches on Friday before being paired with doubles specialist Paul Hanley in Saturday's doubles rubber.
Ball's heavy workload means the much anticipated debut of 17-year-old Bernard Tomic - who is set to become Australia's youngest ever Davis Cup player in the tie against Taiwan - is likely to be delayed until Sunday with the world's best junior likely to play one of the two reverse singles matches if Australia has already secured the tie.
Taiwan, which has lost both its two previous ties against Australia, is without its highest ranked player in Yen-Hsun Lu with their highest ranked player for the tie being Tsung-Hua Yang - who at No.322 is ranked below Luczak (No.75), Ball (No.117) and even Tomic (No.298).
Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald admitted on Tuesday that Ball, who last year reached his first ATP tour final when he lost to American Sam Querrey in Los Angeles, was likely to carry a heavy workload against Taiwan.
"It's a pretty good chance that Carsten with his game is going to be playing doubles on the middle day and he's certainly a viable option for the first and or third (day)," he said.
"We like to share the workload but having said that we want to get our best options on the court on the first day and try to get up 2-0 if we can."
"We honestly haven't made up our minds and we think we've got three very good options to play singles and we'll go through the pros and cons in the next 24 hours."
While Fitzgerald appears to be leaning towards using Luczak and Ball in the singles on the opening day, he said Tomic was still in contention to make his Davis Cup debut on Friday.
"It's important to pick the right team, but believe you me, Bernard's well in the mix here."
"He's been practising well, he's in good form, he's happy, but so are the other boys.
"But you don't pick someone to blood them, you pick the right players and in the right combinations to win the tie."
Former Australian Davis Cup captain Neale Fraser was a special guest at Tuesday's Davis Cup training session at Melbourne Park and in particular cast his eye over Ball, whose father Syd was a Davis Cup team member during Fraser's long period in charge.
Fraser said the big-serving Ball, who reached the second round of last year's US Open but has bowed out in the first round of the Australian Open the past two years, had the potential to be a long-time Davis Cup player for Australia.
"He's got all the variety and he's got the height," Fraser said of Ball.
"He just gets a little lazy at times and