Bermuda's Davis Cup and Federation Cup squads will sacrifice part of their Christmas holidays to work themselves into the ground for the right to represent the Island.

While most people will be relaxing, the Island's top tennis players will undergo rigorous tests of fitness and will play each other in friendly matches over the next week under the watchful eye of Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association's National Select Committee members.

Those who perform best will be well placed to earn selection for the four-man Davis Cup team to travel to Cuba in March and the four-woman Fed Cup team which will compete in Antigua in May.

Davis Cup squad members James Collieson and Jenson Bascome will be back from the US to stake their claims and they will join Island-based players Michael Way and Ricky Mallory.

Competition for places will be hot, as Washington-based Donald Evans, who defeated Way earlier this month to win the Coral Beach Invitational, has also expressed an interest in playing in Cuba. Evans will not be back for the holiday training.

Others, like Daniel Miller, Quinton Burgess and Chris Watson will also be trying to impress the selectors.

The entire 1999 Fed Cup team of Danielle Paynter, Zarah DeSilva, Tara Lambert and Danielle Downey, will be training together under captain Kelly Holland over Christmas.

And they will be joined by the likes of Sasha Fisher and Crystal Lambert.

BLTA president David Lambert explained that Christmas was one of the few times of year when most of the national squad members were home. And for the sake of team morale, as well as for selection purposes, it had become traditional to get them all out on court together.

"We will have the players skipping, stretching and running to test their physical fitness,'' said Lambert. "And as most of them are playing regularly overseas, we think their fitness will prove to be at the level we would expect.

"And we also want the players to arrange matches against each other and let us know when they will be playing so we can observe.

"All this is part of the selection process. We will be looking at fitness, results and how players approach the game. Personally, I will also be looking for turning points and to see evidence of players raising their game at important times in the match.'' Lambert was hoping to get as many players as possible from both squads together on court on Boxing Day afternoon at either the Tennis Stadium or Elbow Beach, in what would be the biggest gathering of top-class Bermuda tennis talent in one place this year.

The BLTA National Select Committee will meet on January 5, when they are likely to choose the Davis Cup foursome.

Ricky Mallory: will be pressing his claim for a place in Bermuda's Davis Cup team to travel to Cuba in March.