moment with none of the native players inside the top 100. Their highest ranked player didn't step on court this time (N. Marques) thus all the engageable players were around the top 200 (actually 2 and 4 places inside the top 200, while the reserve player was 9 spots behind the top 250). However, in doubles they were much better (Köves/Markovits-Couto/Cunha-Silva) and because of the Davis Cup match up rules the lowest ranked Hungarian player had to beat his highest and better Portugal counterpart (Krocskó-Cunha-Silva). Contrary to the expectations these two matches was won by Hungary and was completed by the third win at the fourth rubber by Sándor Noszály over Joao Cunha-Silva (the two frontmen). The group advanced again to the play-offs (called World Group – Qualifying 1st round). The biggest accomplishment of this team was the qualification to the World Group in a Play-off tie against the Australian team, whose rank and seed weren't determined by the actual Davis Cup rules, can be described the best by their flawless performance in the play-offs (thus this marked the first time for them to ever falling out of the World Group) and by the total Davis Cup champion titles they'd got (26 final victories, more than any other nation). World number one doubles partners Mark Woodforde-Todd Woodbridge (whose singles rank were #39-#36 respectively) were accompanied by Patrick Rafter (#46), Mark Philippoussis (#84) and coach John Newcombe and Tony Roche to Hungary. They left out of the stack 1993 finalist member Richard Fromberg (who became active again after two years break) and Jason Stoltenberg due to his shoulder injury. The most anticipated Hungarian player was Sándor Noszály who reached the semifinals of Bucharest Open – part of ATP International series – after defeating Albert Costa and Sergi Bruguera. He was also at his peak on the world rankings at the 95th position. He remembered ten years after as arriving tired to his first match because he had 5 days of rest after the aforementioned Romanian tournament. He was joined by József Krocskó (#192), who called himself a "Davis Cup specialist", a name referring to his better results when it came to represent his country. Finally the Köves/Márkovits duo was added to the roster. Before the start of the tie it was revealed that the announced line-up for the Aussies changed when Newcombe left Rafter out of the active players list because