Britain's Davis Cup team will have history on their side this weekend when they take on Switzerland [Images] in a bid to rejoin the world's top 16 nations.

Unfortunately though for the British, their opponents will have a certain Roger Federer [Images] on their side.

Britain have won all three of their previous Davis Cup encounters with Switzerland -- dropping only one rubber in the process -- but the world number one's return to the Swiss squad has clearly stacked the odds in favour of the home team.

"The Davis Cup has always been quite special for me because playing for your country is totally different than playing for your own name," the six-time Grand Slam champion said on Tuesday.

"Of course we'll be the favourites with me as the world number one and us playing at home and on clay, which is not usually the British players' favourite surface, so there are definitely many things working against them in this tie.

"At the same time [Andrew] Murray is coming along and Greg [Rusedski] has had a pretty good summer so they will know they have a chance to pull off an upset. We just have to make sure that we close them out in time."

Despite his professed enjoyment of this team competition, Federer has not let the Davis Cup get in the way of his individual ambitions on the ATP Tour.

It is likely that the Swiss would not even be fighting to retain their World Group status if Federer had chosen to take part in Switzerland's first round tie against the Netherlands in March.

RANKING PRIORITY

"Missing that tie was not an easy decision for me, especially when we have good young players like [Swiss number two] Stanislas Wawrinka coming through to strengthen the squad," Federer said.

"But for me the big, big focus of the year was holding on to the number one position and playing another great year of tennis which was a decision that the team totally understood.

"I've already managed to achieve my goals for this year, by winning two Grand Slams and 10 tournaments so far, so now anything else that comes along is a bonus."

Federer is, of course, not the only player to have put individual needs ahead of Davis Cup duties -- the British squad are themselves having to do without the services of national number one Tim Henman, who announced his retirement from the competition in January.

"Henman was playing Davis Cup for 10 years, so I think his decision was totally understandable," Federer reckoned.

"At some point it's probably best to decide that you're not going to play, rather than trying to come in and out of the team.

"There will always be people who don't understand, although I think being world number one has helped spare me a lot of criticism. Personally I would like to see the Davis Cup being played every two years, which would give everybody a much bigger chance to take part."

Federer has yet to decide about his Davis Cup commitments for next year, saying on Tuesday that a lot would depend on this weekend's result and who the Swiss are drawn against in 2006.

His motivation for this weekend seems strong enough, however, with the world number one confident that at least one aspect of the Davis Cup tie will be more enjoyable than this month's US Open [Images] triumph.

"What I'm looking forward to most this weekend is the home support," Federer said with a grin.

"What I faced in the US Open final with 23,000 spectators all backing [Andre] Agassi to win, was really quite tough. After that it's going to be nice to be back on home soil."

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