FOUR of Bermuda's leading female tennis players will leave Bermuda tomorrow morning to compete in the Fed Cup being hosted by Bolivia. And not only will Jacklyn Lambert, sister Tara Lambert along with Ashley Brooks and Caitlin Gordon have to fight against players from 12 countries but they will also have to fight the altitude.

This is the Americas Zone II competition and will be played at Cochabamba which sits at 8,000 feet.

Bermuda coach Terry Smith will travel with the team and he said this week: "The altitude will not only affect the players but also the balls. We have to make adjustments. We will string the racquets three to five pounds tighter which will compensate for control. They will also be using altitude balls which tend to be a little bit heavier so we have to adjust to all these things. And I have to make sure the players drink plenty of water and hydrate a lot even before we get there."

The surface will be relatively new to the Bermuda players as the tournament will be played on slow red clay which is different from the Har Tru clay used in Bermuda.

Smith said of the surface: "We have to be more patient because we normally play on hard courts and our players are pretty aggressive.

"The red clay will favour the South and Central American players as they love that surface but we have been working on sliding and having patience. South and Central American players are able to stay on the court for a long time and grind it out ¿ our players are more offensive and they are going to have to be able to hang in there. It is important to be able to stay out there on the court (hitting).

"But we have a good group of players who have experience of playing abroad for Bermuda. I think we can do pretty well and hopefully come up with promotion. The round robin phase is going to be very important. We are ready to go in there and work hard."

The team will have a couple of days to acclimatise before the action starts on Wednesday. The Lambert sisters, Brooks and coach Smith will travel from Bermuda on Saturday and will meet up with Gordon in Miami later in the day as Gordon attends the Saddlebrook Academy in Florida.