Top national tennis player Brett Baudinet is heading to Barbados to compete in the Davis Cup World Group 2 event to be held early next month.

Baudinet will feature for the Pacific Oceania team who has been drawn as the fifth seed side in the World Group 2 competition. The tie will be hosted in Barbados on February 3 and 4 and will be livestreamed at www.daviscup.com.

The Pacific Oceania team regained their position in Group 2, and were drawn against sixth seed Estonia, who the side lost to and were relegated back down to Group 3, last year.

The regional team then competed in Vietnam where they triumphed over the entire week of the competition beating all nations they played, including top seeds Vietnam in the finals to regain their position back up in Group 2.

Baudinet said the upcoming tie “is going to be a tough battle again for us, they always are tough in Davis Cup, especially as Barbados have home court advantage”.

He will be flying to the Australia Open next week and will be training in Melbourne before taking the long trip to Barbados.

The team will be arriving there a week early to get acclimatised and train on the court surfaces to prepare themselves for the battle.

The team this year will comprise Colin Sinclair from Saipan, Clement Mainguy from Vanuatu, Baudinet, Gillian Osmont from Tahiti and Junior Fanguna from Tonga.

“I’m super excited,” Baudinet said.

“The Pacific Oceania team is currently ranked 71 in the world out of 153 countries, ranking higher than the likes of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Pretty amazing for us small Pacific islanders in one of the most popular sports in the world ... I am super proud of our boys and management and team that is behind us and our achievements to date.”

Baudinet has a 13-2 winning record for doubles in the last four years.

“I will be mainly focusing on doubles as usual, and I’m feeling confident going in. I’ve had some great results in recent years which helps add to my confidence going in,” he said.

“Every year we have to nominate ourselves for the Davis Cup team, and every time I get selected it brings me chills. I am 41 years young, and I’ve been on the team almost half my life (19 years). It has been an absolute blast and I feel my results have only got better and better as the years have got on. So I feel fortunate enough that I still have a few years ahead of me.”

Baudinet said he is looking forward to a big tie this year against Barbados, “one of the hardest ties we will have yet”.

“I’m hoping to bring the house down on these guys and our team is super pumped and everyone is out there playing tournaments and getting prepared for the battle.”