What does everyone think the team will be (or who would you pick?)

Baltacha and O'Brien will surely both be there.

I can't see Keothavong returning in time to be honest, even if she gets herself fit she will be desperately short of match practice.

They surely have to take Borwell as the doubles specialist.

South would be the obvious fourth player, someone who has proved they could play both singles and doubles to a reasonably high level.

In previous years we have struggled in the doubles, but this year we improved, but made the decision of playing Keothavong (someone with, er, questionable doubles ability) with Borwell in the last match, and lost. As with a lot of teams, we seem to trust our best singles player to play doubles even if it is not always the best option.

The problems I see with South & Borwell as a pairing is a) they are too similar and b) I would imagine they would both want to play on the deuce side.

A left wing suggestion would be to play Anna Smith, who adds variety from the back of the court and her best shot is her backhand so would play on the advantage side. Unfortunately though we only have four players to last a whole week, so Anna would never go because we would be short of someone who can win singles match against high class opposition of one of Katie and Bally get injured.

Any thoughts?

Anne has already gone on record to say see will miss the Australian Open, she's not good enough to just walk into the team without playing a single competitive match in six months.

Whilst I have very high hopes for Laura, I don't have the confidence in her yet to perform consistently enough. Katie has cracked the top 100 and deserves her chance.

I might risk Laura if she has a good Aussie open but it may be a Theo Walcott moment re 2006 world cup and a year too early.


If laura has a good AO, she'll be playing the girls single final 2 days before this starts. After spending somewhere near two months in the Australian summer, to come back to a European winter, cope with the jetlag from flying halfway around the world for 20 hours, and start playing a tournament the day you arrive back isn't going to be a winning formula.

If on the other hand she has a bad AO, then she might be worth considering for a place!

RBBOT makes a good point about Laura's schedule. It can be strengthened further because team nominations have to be made 28 days before, so they cannot wait and see (though Laura could be drafted in as a late replacement if any of the original nominees are forced to withdraw).

There is a further reason why I think Laura will not be considered initially. That is because without a star player we will be dependent on winning the second singles and doubles against several nations. Hence reliability will be the key for the second player - something which doesn't fit Laura at present (though having an on-court captain might help her).

Bally this year, and Anne last year, both fulfilled the role of second player impeccably. If Bally does not win another match this year she will be ranked below Katie at the nominations deadline and thus Katie would definitely be selected to allow the option of selecting Bally for the second singles. If Bally regains the number 1 spot then it is less clear-cut but I would still expect Katie to be selected ahead of Anne and Mel as the safest bet for the number 2 singles (though it would weaken the doubles options).

Anne said recently: "I've set the Fed Cup play-offs in February as a target because that tournament is really important to me" . I expect, given her track record and commitment that she will be selected subject to proving fitness, and used primarily in doubles with Sarah. Sarah may not be a top doubles player, but she is the best we have got and without her we lost all three group doubles matches in 2008.

Hence I expect the nominated team to be

Katie
Bally
Anne
Sarah

with Mel as reserve and Laura taken along for experience possibly.

I think I'd take Bally & Katie for the singles and Mel & Laura for the doubles (schedule permitting). I don't really see the point of taking Sarah on present form, whereas Mel has had good doubles form with Emma Laine (Anna Smith too, but I doubt she stand much chance, sadly).

It was probably more at the level of a 50k event at best though.