1. This will be the 225th tie in Great Britain’s 108 year Davis Cup history although the team played under the title of the British Isles until 1913. In 96 years of actual competition, British players have registered victory in 137 ties and been forced to accept defeat in 87.

2. Despite both Great Britain and Argentina having long tennis histories, these two nations have only met three times previously in the Davis Cup. Argentina have won twice, in Buenos Aires during the autumn of 1981 and nearly eight years later on the grass of Eastbourne. Britain must look back 80 years to their solitary win that came on the shale of Torquay’s Abbey Park Gardens.

3. Great Britain will be contesting the opening round of the World Group for the first time since 2003 when Roger Taylor’s side were beaten by Australia at Sydney’s Homebush Stadium.

4. This will be the tenth time Britain have been involved in the 16-team World Group since the current format was inaugurated in 1981, Britain have been involved nine times. The team has played 14 ties.

The nation’s last World Group win came 22 years ago as Paul Hutchins’ team overcame Spain 4-1 in Telford and looking further back the last World Group win on foreign soil came in July 1981 with a 4-1 win over New Zealand on the grass of Christchurch’s Wilding Park.

5. Argentina have not lost a home tie in the Davis Cup in almost ten years. The last defeat on home soil came in September 1998 when the Slovak Republic’s two man team of Dominik Hrbaty and Karol Kucera. The Argentine winning streak at home stretches back through ten ties.

6. Optimists will be interested to note a 5-0 win for Britain will be the first time the team has registered a whitewash since the emphatic victory over Portugal at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena seven years ago. The last time a British team won a tie without dropping a solitary set was the win over Monaco at Eastbourne in July 1995.

7. Pessimists will counter the most recent 5-0 beating of a British team came against Switzerland in Geneva in September 2005. More ominously the last time a British player failed to even win a set came in a tie came during the World Group semi-final of 1981 against Argentina on the clay of Buenos Aires.

8. Nine of Argentina’s ten successive home victories have ended in 5-0 whitewashes. The only nation to leave with wins to their name was Croatia and the last visiting player to win on Argentine clay was Ivan Ljubicic who beat Juan Igancio Chela in four sets.

9. Since making his Argentina debut more than five years ago, David Nalbandian has never lost any form of Davis Cup rubber, either singles or doubles, when playing at home.

10. Potentially this could be the first ever British Davis Cup tie when all the active players come from Scotland and the first when no English-born player has been involved. The last time all four active British players were born in the same country came July 1994 when the English trio of Jeremy Bates, Mark Petchey and Tim Henman lost to Romania.

11. The longest ever recorded tie in British Davis Cup history was the September 2003 defeat in Morocco, the action stretching 15 hours and one minute of playing time. The match was forced to extend into a fourth day after floodlight problems in Casablanca.

12. Britain has only once recovered from a 2-0 deficit to win a tie when the team under the captaincy of Herbert Barrett recovered to beat Germany 3-2 on the shale courts at London's Queen's Club in 1930. Bunny Austin and Harry Lee lost the opening two singles rubbers before Ian Collins and Colin Gregory took the doubles. Then Austin levelled the tie in the reverse singles before Lee clinched victory in four sets.

13. Andy Murray became Great Britain's youngest ever Davis Cup player nearly three years ago when he made his debut as a doubles player in Israel aged 17 years, 293 days. Previously Roger Becker held this record for more than half a century after making his debut against Yugoslavia in Belgrade in 1952 aged 18 years and 101 days. Britain's oldest ever player figured in that same Yugoslavian tie; Colin Gregory aged 48 years and 294 days.

14. Should Andy and Jamie Murray finally link up on the doubles court, they will become the first pair of brothers to play alongside one another for Britain in the Davis Cup since David and John Lloyd faced Romania together as a doubles partnership at Bristol in June,1980. Together the Lloyds played eight rubbers, winning four. The only other brothers to represent Britain together were Laurence and Reggie Doherty who were unbeaten together at doubles between 1902 and 1906.

15. It is now 71 years since Great Britain’s most successful run in the Davis Cup; a ten tie unbeaten stretch from 1933-37, highlighted by winning the trophy four times. In more recent years the best effort was a four match-winning streak in 1995-6 with wins over Monaco, Slovenia, Ghana and Egypt.