With just one more day until top women’s players hit the courts in Antwerp, Belgium, both tennis fans and analyst alike are wondering which country will rise up to defend their name and which will simply roll over and accept their beating.
The best-of-five showdown will be held on an indoor hardcourt at Sportpaleis Antwerp. Opening the tournament will be America taking on, host country, Beligum with No.48 Bethanie Mattek-Sands against No.26 Yanina Wickmayer in a singles rubber on Saturday. Soon after, world No.1 Kim Clijsters will face the U.S’s Melanie Oudin.
On Sunday, these same players will face one another in a reverse singles where four-time Grand Slam champion Clijsters is pitted against Mattek-Sands and Wickmayer versus world ranked No.61 Oudin.
Along with doubles player Liezel Huber, who will play a tie-ending doubles against Beligians Kirsten Flipkens and An-sophie Mestach with partner Vania King, both Mattek-Sands and Oudin have led the U.S. to consecutive Fed Cup finals in the past two seasons.
Serving as U.S. team captain once more is Mary Joe Fernandez while Sabine Appelmans will guide the Belgians.
"This will be the biggest crowd we have played against the last couple of years," Fernandez told the media. "It is great for Fed Cup. It is great for both teams. We are going to pretend they are rooting for us the whole time."
Slovakia vs. Czech Republic
Meanwhile, Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova will face Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in the opening singles of the Fed Cup held in the Slovak capital of Bratislava on Saturday.
Also on the hard courts of Sibamac Arena, Dominika Cibulkova will play the second singles against Petra Kvitova. This battle between the two players might remind fans of their match up at the Brisbane International tournament in January where Kvitova easily beat Cibulkova 6-0, 6-4.
"Our goal is to win both opening matches, that would be great," Hantuchova said.
This will be the Slovaks first appearance in the World Group after a seven-year absence while the Czechs have reached the semifinals over the last two years. In all three previous encounters against the Czech Republic, Slovakia has been defeated.
In Sunday's reverse singles, Hantuchova plays Kvitova before Cibulkova takes on Safarova.
In the final doubles, Hantuchova is set to team up with Magdalena Rybarikova to face Kveta Peschke and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
The winner of this best-of-five tie will face Belgium or the United States in the semifinals in April.
Australia vs. Italy
The Australian team is taking on the two-time defending Fed Cup champion Italian team from Feb. 5th-6th in Australia. The Australian team leads by a large margin, standing head-to-head against the Italians, 5-0. They will be playing on a hard court indoors, where the Australians lead 2-0. The teams are quite evenly matched in their individual players’ standings, with neither having a player outside of the top 70.
The Australian team is composed of 3rd-ranked Samantha Stosur, 11th-ranked Rennae Stubbs, 31st-ranked Jarmila Groth, 64th-ranked Anastasia Rodionova. The team is captained by David Taylor.
The Italian team is made up of 4th-ranked Francesca Schiavone, 16th-ranked Flavia Pennetta, 38th-ranked Roberta Vinci and 44th-ranked Sara Errani. The team is captained by Corrado Barazzutti.
The Italians have won the Fed Cup for the past two consecutive years, while the Australian team is second most successful team in the history of the nearly 5-decade old tournament. The tournament starts off with a first round match-up between first-time Fed Cup competitor, Jarmila Groth, and Francesca Schiavone.
Of the match up, Groth said, “I’m very excited and I’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time. […] Playing Francesca will be very tough. She is a great player and has had great results like winning a Grand Slam, and it will be an honour to play her which I haven’t done before.”
Schiavone said, “Now it’s time to enjoy and to keep going up. I never stop and I never want to. I want to keep going forward like a baby, curious to know more and more and more.” The second match on Saturday takes place between Samantha Stosur and Flavia Pennetta.
France vs. Russia
The Russian group is taking on France from Feb. 5th-6th in Russia. The Russian team leads overall, holding 5 wins to the French’s 3. They will be playing on a hard court indoors, where the Russian team leads 1-0. The Russian team also has 3 of their 4 teams inside the top 25, while the French have none.
The Russian team is composed of 13th-ranked Maria Sharapova, 14th-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 23rd-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova and 117th-ranked Dinara Safina. The team is captained by Shamil Tipsarevich.
The French team is made up of 67th-ranked Alize Cornet, 83rd-ranked Virginie Razzano, 100th-ranked Pauline Parmentier and 262nd-ranked Julie Coin. The team is captained by Nicholas Escude.
The two times have not played one another in 6 years. Saturday’s match up begins with Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alize Cornet taking the court. Of the match-up, Cornet stated, “Even when they don’t play on top, they are still a very good side and of course on paper we are not as strong as them, but this is Fed Cup, and you never know what might happen.” Kuznetsova was quoted as saying, “It will be a tough match, but I am looking forward to showing my best game, and doing my best.”
After that first round, Maria Sharapova and Virgine Razzano play. Sharapova has only played for Russia once, that tournament taking place in Israel. Of her second chance to play she said, “I think the experience I had in Israel is really going to help me. It was the first time I played for a team, and it was a completely different experience from anything I could have imagined, and my team mates were great.”