Tennis can be a strange sport, and while we don’t yet know who will be crowned 2008 Davis Cup champions, we do know the first-round draw for the 2009 competition. It took place in Madrid earlier in the week and threw up some interesting match-ups for us to enjoy many months from now.

Before we take a look at what the draw presents us with, it’s worth noting a few calendar changes to Davis Cup in 2009. The first round will take place in early March, rather than February, while the quarter-finals will be played much later than we are ordinarily accustomed to. Those ties will take place in July (this year they were played in April). The semi-finals and final will take place in September and early December, consistent with previous Davis Cup years.

There are four particularly intriguing first-round ties, with the two marquee encounters involving the top three players in the world. Spain will begin their 2009 campaign against Novak Djokovic’s Serbia on what we all will expect to be clay.

As ever, Rafael Nadal will lead the Spanish and even though it’s far too early to know for sure who the other players involved will be it’s likely that David Ferrer (Spain) and Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) will be the respective second singles players.

Serbia will believe they hold the slight edge in doubles, being able to call on doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic. Nadal has never lost a best-of-five-set match on clay, so if Serbia want to advance they will have to maximise their opportunities when Rafa isn’t on court.

Roger Federer has committed himself to Switzerland’s first-round tie and his preparations will be made easier by virtue of the fact that he will take his team to face the USA – where he will already be in anticipation of the Masters Series event at Indian Wells.

In recent years Federer has dominated American players, the entire tour in fact, but his record against Americans was particularly impressive. In 2008, the Americans gained some small measure of revenge over the former world No.1 with wins for Andy Roddick, James Blake and Mardy Fish.

The two other ties which stand out are the Czech Republic hosting France, and Croatia entertaining Chile. Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek will lead the Czechs against what is always a versatile and adaptable French side. France can call on any number of singles players including Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, as well as the doubles tandem of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra.

Chile overcame Australia 3-2 at home to rejoin the World Group and have been handed a tough task in Croatia against big servers Mario Ancic, Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic. On what is likely to be an indoor hard court, Chile will count on Fernando Gonzalez to do most of the damage as Nicolas Massu has seen better days.

Argentina, who may well be defending champions when these matches commence in 2009, will be very happy with a home tie against the Netherlands. If Argentina are champions it will mean that their unbeaten home record will have been extended into its 11th year and no one would bet on the Netherlands being the ones to end that streak.

The remaining ties include Russia travelling to Romania, Germany hosting Austria and Sweden facing Israel. Anything other than Russian, German and Swedish wins would be a surprise.

It should be another great year of Davis Cup action in 2009, but of course we still have a great final to look forward to this year. How did the draw work out for your nation or favourite players?