Great Britain's hopes of playing in the Davis Cup World Group for the first time since 2008 hinge on an away tie against Croatia in September.

The Croatian team were defeated 3-2 by Italy in February and boast world No.11 Marin Cilic and world No.54 Ivan Dodig in their ranks but big serving Ivo Karlovic is unavailable after he retired from the Davis Cup action last year.

Britain came back from 2-0 down for the first time since 1930 to defeat Russia last weekend and will be boosted by the return of world No.2 Andy Murray as they seek to end a six-year absence from the world group.

Marin Cilic and Andy Murray
Cilic and Murray do battle once again.

Captain Leon Smith said: "Obviously Croatia is a tough draw and especially as it is an away tie.

"In Marin Cilic they have an extremely strong No.1 player who is currently ranked 11 in the world. Ivan Dodig is their current No.2 singles player and ranked at 54. But as we saw last weekend, anything is possible in Davis Cup."

Croatia, currently ranked 11<sup>th in the Davis Cup world rankings, are the nominated home team but will have bad memories of the last time they faced Britain in 2007 when they lost 4-1 to a a team comprising of Murray, Jamie Murray, Jamie Baker and Tim Henman.

The tie is scheduled for 6-8 September, less than a week after the climax to the US Open, which Murray defends after becoming the first British male grand slam champion for 76 years at Flushing Meadows last year.

The hosts have until 30 April to decide on a venue, but with the tie occurring amid the second half of the hard-court season, are likely to choose a clay surface potentially in Umag, home of the Croatia Open.

Champions in 2005, Croatia reached the World Group quarter finals last year, eventually losing to Argentina in Buenos Aires.

While the winning nation will progress to the World Group, the defeated country will drop into the Europe/Africa Zone Group I in 2014.

Davis Cup World Group Play-offs draw:

Poland v Australia
Germany v Brazil
Switzerland v Ecuador
Croatia v Great Britain
Netherlands v Austria
Spain v Ukraine
Belgium v Israel
Japan v Colombia

Germany Israel Japan Australia