India's hopes of making it to the Davis Cup elite World Group of 16 for the first time since 1998 received a setback when they were drawn to face world No 14 Romania away from home.

India reached the play-off round for the first time since 2005 when they defeated Japan [Images] 3-2 in New Delhi over the weekend.

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The draw for the eight play-off matches, from September 19 to 21, was made at the ITF (International Tennis Federation) headquarters in London [Images] on Wednesday morning.

India are ranked 10 places lower than Romania at 24 and will probably play in Bucharest, the capital, on clay courts.

Romania had the choice of venue since they are the seeded side and had played in New Delhi when the two nations last faced off in 1971. They won that tie 4-1, and in 1969 beat India 4-0 in Bucharest.

India's lone win over Romania came way back in 1922, their second year in tennis' elite team competition, when they won 5-0 in Beckenham, UK.

Romania have two players in the top 100 -- Victor Hanescu (68) and Andrei Pavel (93; doubles ranking 31) -- while Prakash Amritraj is India's highest-ranked player at 254, with Rohan Bopanna at 307.

India's doubles combination of Leander Paes [Images] and Mahesh Bhupathi [Images], however, remains one of the strongest in the world whenever they team up for the nation.

The eight winners of the play-offs advance to the 2008 World Group while the losers will be placed in Group I.

Incidentally, both India and Romania reached the Davis Cup final thrice but lost on all three occasions.

Argentina is the only other country to have reached the final more than once without claiming the title. 

World Group Play-off draw:

India v Romania; Australia v Chile; Belgium v Switzerland [Images]; Austria v Great Britain; Croatia v Brazil [Images]; Israel v Peru; Korea v Netherlands; Slovak Republic v Serbia.

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