I agree with Paul that getting to face the winner of the Slovenia group is the key ( 1 in 3 chance ) wouldn't like our chances against Poland or Belarus ( assuming Vika does play ). Poland played Sweden last year and lost the deciding doubles so its still not complete doom and gloom but nonetheless would be a tall order.

Can't wait for this assuming we turn up fully fit and in form. One benefit of Laura being our number 2 would be that she would play 1st and so would get rest for the doubles if required. I would have thought that if we win both singles matches in each tie Annie K and Joko would come in and pair up for doubles giving our top 2 a rest. I actually thought it would have been a good idea for Hev to pair up with Laura for the Oz Open WD as practice but I think Hev will play with Erakovic.

So in an ideal world, a group of us, Portugal, Hungary, Bosnia or Turkey would be perfect. As everything worked perfectly last year I suspect this year it probably won't.

And Croatia's Fed Cup team contains 16 year old Donna Vekic and 15 year old (just!) Ana Konjuh......at this moment by far the standout players of their age in the world. Gulp!

http://www.fedcup.com/en/results/group-i/europe-africa/2013.aspx

korriban wrote:

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And Croatia's Fed Cup team contains 16 year old Donna Vekic and 15 year old (just!) Ana Konjuh......at this moment by far the standout players of their age in the world. Gulp!

http://www.fedcup.com/en/results/group-i/europe-africa/2013.aspx

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 In a couple of years those girls might be strong enough to challenge our top 2 but not yet.

wolf wrote:

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I'm pretty sure that's NOT what happened last year but what happened the years before.

P.S is it confirmed that Heather will play as our number one player?

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It is what happened last year. Top 4 seeds in ranking order were Estonia, Sweden, Netherlands, Poland. They were placed in order into A, B, C and D. It seems strange now to think Estonia were ranked so highly but they were. Hev is more likely to be #1 on basis Laura is defending more points from Oz Open, but in theory it could change.

-- Edited by PaulM on Sunday 13th of January 2013 06:13:32 PM

I'm pretty sure that's NOT what happened last year but what happened the years before.

P.S is it confirmed that Heather will play as our number one player?

I thought it was the rankings at the time of the nominations deadline (not sure when this is, but it's normally 10 days before the tie i think) that was used to decide #1 and #2?

Oh I thought you meant they seed the teams in the play-off Paul. So the winner of Pool A plays winner of Pool C and the winner of Pool B plays the winner of Pool D, with the top seeded team pre-determined as being Pool A etc. Seems a stupid way of doing it, why not just have draws?

wolf wrote:

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I thought it was the rankings at the time of the nominations deadline (not sure when this is, but it's normally 10 days before the tie i think) that was used to decide #1 and #2?

Oh I thought you meant they seed the teams in the play-off Paul. So the winner of Pool A plays winner of Pool C and the winner of Pool B plays the winner of Pool D, with the top seeded team pre-determined as being Pool A etc. Seems a stupid way of doing it, why not just have draws?

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Ah I see. Yeah I don't know why they do it this way, I guess it's to avoid 1 v 2 and 3 v 4 situation if the top seeds in each pool get o the playoffs. But I agree you'd think they'd do 1 v 4 and 2 v 3.