Fed Cup 2014 - Europe/Africa Zone Group I

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Fed Cup 2014 - Europe/Africa Zone Group I

indiana · Tennis legend

Good shouts re looking at potential doubles players rather than just going through the singles players as I was rather doing. Joss and Anna have been impressive of late. Bringing one doubles specialist in must be in the thoughts.

Not doubting Phil, anyway. Good to see that he is so sure that for instance all potential back-up players know the script. Generally, I must admit, I am impressed with what comes over about both the Fed and Davis Cup team prep over recent times.

wolf · Tennis legend

Jocelyn would me be my choice as the best partner to Heather if Laura can't make it. She's a deuce side player, while a lot of the others are have better backhands so I'm sure are more comfortable on the ad side.

But I'm not sure we can afford to carry her with a potential 4 ties in back to back days if another member of the side of the squad has injury worries.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Further thnking on the schedule, there is a local TV company covering the event, and that deal was signed before the number of teams was cut to 16. Also because we are in the same group as Hungary we are likely to be playing in the afternoon and on the centre court.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Azarenka out, the locals will be gutted, no impact on us.

-- Edited by philwrig on Thursday 23rd of January 2014 02:18:19 PM

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

With Belarus not in our half of the draw, it's a shame Azarenka has pulled out (I have a feeling the Belarus captain would have selected her more in hope than expectation though). Definitely makes our half look the toughest now (compared to last year where everything went our way).

philwrig · Hall of fame

tony_orient wrote:
With Belarus not in our half of the draw, it's a shame Azarenka has pulled out (I have a feeling the Belarus captain would have selected her more in hope than expectation though). Definitely makes our half look the toughest now (compared to last year where everything went our way).

Have you bought a ticket yet, or are you just going to get one when you get to Budapest ?

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

philwrig wrote:
tony_orient wrote:
With Belarus not in our half of the draw, it's a shame Azarenka has pulled out (I have a feeling the Belarus captain would have selected her more in hope than expectation though). Definitely makes our half look the toughest now (compared to last year where everything went our way).
Have you bought a ticket yet, or are you just going to get one when you get to Budapest ?

Probably wait until I get there now, though it would help if they could actually decide how the tournament is going to be arranged or at least allow you to print a ticket for the weekly pass. I think that collecting a pre-ordered ticket will be more complicated than just buying one there.

What are your plans?

philwrig · Hall of fame

I'm just going to leave it, its not exactly soldout ! Then just get the best ticket when I get there. We're likely to be on centre, certainly for the Hungary match, so it might mean moving around the venue on a daily basis to find the best seat in the house.

I tried the online ticket route a couple of days ago and the checkout was giving me a final price of 945000 price for the ticket, clearly something going badly wrong there !

PaulM · Tennis legend

Flipkens and Rus also out. Minella also likely to withdraw this week.

Groups starting to weaken except ours!

indiana · Tennis legend

Although I think we might weaken our group !

Priesty · Challenger level

As we feared Laura has withdrawn....

Joss will be the replacement.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Well done everyone - as a collective we called it!

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Disappointing news but somewhat inevitable that Laura would have to pull out - she needs to get the wrist 100% again before playing any more matches. It also shows (if not already apparent from her performance) how far away from being properly fit she was for the Australian Open.

Joss is a good choice as replacement - no player as 4th choice singles player would have ever been needed and Joss has the experience that means she could be trusted in a deciding doubles tie.

Laura's comments on the LTA site: "After consulting with my doctor I have unfortunately been advised that I'll need to rest my wrist for another 2-4 weeks. This will sadly not allow me to play in Fed Cup, which was one of my biggest goals for 2014. We still have such a great team and I plan to be the best supporter ever!"

This suggests that she wasn't really close to being ready.

What will our first choice doubles team be now? As a doubles specialist will Joss come straight into the team as Heather's partner?

-- Edited by tony_orient on Friday 24th of January 2014 10:45:09 AM

PaulM · Tennis legend

I'd still go for a team of

Singles #2 - Heather
Singles #1 - JoKo
Doubles - Heather/Joss

Having Heather as our #2, on current form, does give us a small advantage I think, and even if JoKo isn't able to recover form to beat the Romanian #1 or Babos I do fancy our chances in a doubles shootout.

Although Jo did well in Shezen, I think I would prefer a fresh Joss who has played with Hev in the past and has solid doubles skills and tactical awareness. Tara is a decent doubles player but I think a Heather/Tara partnership has more obvious weaknesses to target. I don't think Joss/Tara would really be an option unless we are already 2-0 up, but even then I think we should be going all out for 3-0 wins as this group could potentially come down to H2H unless Romania remain at full strength and win all 3 of their ties.

I think putting Tara in at #2 with Heather at #1 would, even on current form, be a less successful structure as it gives Heather tougher matches to try and leave us 1-1 after singles. Of course that's not to say Tara can't beat the other #2 players (or that Jo won't secure us a 2-0 victory), I just think that tactically that line-up would work better.

Plus, as the #2 singles is first, it would give Heather additional rest before doubles, whereas the likes of Babos and the Romanian #1 are likely to have to play the doubles with a much shorter rest.

I am by no means suggesting that Heather will easily come through all her matches at #2, but realisitically I think she probably has to for us to stand a chance of going up.

-- Edited by PaulM on Friday 24th of January 2014 11:02:50 AM