A little report before we get going tomorrow 8am your time:
I've been here since last Thursday, acclimatising myself to the weather etc., not seen much sun until the weather got seriously cold yesterday and today. Tennis centre is 5miles outside of Tallinn, so a taxi is costing 9euros back and forth, so I've only been to 2 practice sessions, the last one today was going to be a long one with Jo and Hev. Venue is brand new, and the court surface is slowish. So far so good for the British team, no dramas of that I'm aware of. Unlike previous years when Judy brought out a number of junior female coaches there are none this year. Seeing Laura's practice sessions you can clearly see that the serve is the big problem, just so inconsistent, rest of game in reasonable shape. Joss/ Laura no doubt will play the doubles rubbers unless they're a must win, will do a solid job, having watched them practice together. There are 3 match courts, with one being clearly the centre court. No seating yet for the other 2 courts. Hopefully will be by tomorrow ! Expecting about 15 Brit supporters mainly BATs. British support team consists of Annie K, The 2 Bates (Iain and Jeremy) Gill ( fitness) Millie (physio) Jackson (photography) and another female who is doing analyst duties.
Does anyone happen to know the schedule and which group winner we would play if we were to top ours? Had a quick look at the Fed Cup website but could only find the group lists...
If we top Group C, we play the winners of Group B (Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia Herzegovina) Matches start at 08:00 UK tomorrow (10:00 local), and the afternoon session is 15:00 UK (17:00 local)
Does anyone happen to know the schedule and which group winner we would play if we were to top ours? Had a quick look at the Fed Cup website but could only find the group lists...
If we top Group C, we play the winners of Group B (Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia Herzegovina) Matches start at 08:00 UK tomorrow (10:00 local), and the afternoon session is 15:00 UK (17:00 local)
What's not clear from the info on the Fed Cup website is the order of matches, and if GB are playing mornings or afternoons. I suppose we will find out by tomorrow at least.
Hmm, so effectively Laura is replacing Anna Smith, because even though Heather would be the best option for the doubles, they don't want to play her 3 days in a row.
Hmm, so effectively Laura is replacing Anna Smith, because even though Heather would be the best option for the doubles, they don't want to play her 3 days in a row.
Well, really Laura is there because they want three singles players ( while one can argue Laura vs Tara )
Yes, she may end up just replacing Anna with Joss, but the selection strategy is reasonable.
Trouble with Laura's singles is her good is pretty good, but her bad can be horrid. So even for matches she should win it is probably difficult to be entirely confident that she will win.
I'd be happier that they just kept with Jo and Heather if fit.
Thanks Ali, that really does show up issues a lot more markedly than I was even thinking. Extraordinary bad record vs 301 - 500, particularly compared to 101 - 300 and even more particularly 101 - 150.
Portugal up first tomorrow morning then, probably the weakest of the 3 opponents in the group. Would expect Turkey to provide the toughest test, but they are no certainties to beat Latvia and Ostapenko tomorrow.
Those stats for Laura are bizarre - maybe it reflects that she puts more pressure on herself and gets more nervous against players she knows she should beat easily. Who knows how Laura would play in a Fed Cup singles match, but I'm quite happy not to find out this week.
The last time Jo Konta represented GB in Fed Cup was exactly two years ago today. She was ranked 145 in the world and lost 0 & 1 to world no. 156 Olga Govortsova, so not much of a sign of things to come there! She might have improved a bit since then...
-- Edited by tony_orient on Tuesday 7th of February 2017 09:01:20 PM