Fed Cup

Sheddie · administrator

Fed Cup

Sheddie · administrator

RE: Fed Cup team

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Anne was available last year...in fact she got the vital win over Caroline Wozniacki to keep us in the group.

Both Anne and Elena are unbeaten on Hard Courts in Fed Cup. Anne has a 3-7 record on Clay and Elena has a 3-6 record so really not much between them. Katie has an unbeaten singles record in Fed Cup 1-0 :p

Claire has a 6-4 record on Clay and a 9-5 record in Doubles.

Sheddie · administrator

I'd forgotten that Anne was available last year, it was a great win against Wozniacki considering that she'd only returned from injury just over a month previously.

Although their Fed Cup records are similar, I still feel that Anne is a much better player on clay than Elena and therefore more likely to win Fed Cup rubbers on the surface. In the past Anne has done well in 25Ks on clay [I think she reached several challengers finals on clay in 2003] while it doesn't really suit Elena's game at all and Elena tends to make far too many errors on clay.

Having Claire is the team is a massive boost, that should give us a great chance in the doubles rubbers.

How does everyone rate GBs chances of moving up from the Europe/Africa Zone group 1 into world group qualies this year ?

Sally · Grand Slam Champion

GB d. Ukraine 3-0

Elena Baltacha d. Valeria Bondarenko 60 63

Anne Keothavong d. Olena Antypina 67 62 60

Baltacha/Curran d. Bondarenko/Antypina 64 64

Next up is Hungary and Bulgaria. The winner of the group goes into the play-off in June to try to get into the World Group II. The country that comes bottom of the group goes into a play-off to try to avoid relegation into Europe-Africa Zone Group II, but we should be out of that equation now ( more likely to be Ukraine and whoever lost from Bulgaria v Hungary that ends up fighting for that honour)

-- Edited by Sally at 22:22, 2006-04-18

Drew · Apr 18, 2006

Sally wrote:

GB d. Ukraine 3-0 Elena Baltacha d. Valeria Bondarenko 60 63 Anne Keothavong d. Olena Antypina 67 62 60 Baltacha/Curran d. Bondarenko/Antypina 64 64 Next up is Hungary and Bulgaria. The winner of the group goes into the play-off in June to try to get into the World Group II. The country that comes bottom of the group goes into a play-off to try to avoid relegation into Europe-Africa Zone Group II, but we should be out of that equation now ( more likely to be Ukraine and whoever lost from Bulgaria v Hungary that ends up fighting for that honour

Great result

Sheddie · administrator

RE: Fed Cup

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

i thought they were playing on friday

Sheddie · administrator

Today GB have a really tough match against Bulgaria, this is how they will line up if both teams field their strongest squads.

E Baltacha v D Krastevich [wr:319]

A Keothavong v T Pironkova [wr:81]

Baltacha/Curran v Pironkova/Penkova

Hopefully GB can edge this one 2-1 - the key rubber is Baltacha's match against the left-handed Krastevich, that's a must win one for Bally. Krastevich has played on clay this year but without success and Bally will be boosted by yesterday's great win. Krastevich gave Nagy [wr:138] a tough match yesterday, losing a close 3 setter. I can't see Anne upsetting Pironkova who's in great form but GB will be big favourites for the doubles as Pironkova and Penkova lost very easily against Hungary yesterday.

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

Well at least they've got an advantage over Bulgaria cuz' GB beat them in 1999 and that was also on clay. Imagine if the 3 Bulgarian sisters were playing against them, they wouldnt know who they playing against!!

Sheddie · administrator

VSandhi20 wrote:

i thought they were playing on friday

GB v Bulgaria is today and in progress.

I believe that the tie stands at 1-1: I think that Baltacha won and I know for certain that Keothavong got hammered 6-1, 6-1. I think it's all down to the doubles.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

No results yet but noticed this update on Fed Cup website...

Pool C: 1. Great Britain (2-0), 2= Hungary, Ukraine (1-1), 4. Bulgaria, (0-2).

I'm guessing the Bondarenko's are back...we may not even need to beat Hungary now, if the results go right then I think 1 rubber may be enough to top the group.

Sally · Grand Slam Champion

Looking good so far.

Andy for number 1 · Improver

That's a fantastic win for GB, it looks as if we've won the group

Bally won 6-3, 6-1 which was a superb win especially on her least favourite surface - clay.

Bally and Curran won the deciding doubles rubber 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 against Pironkova and Krastevich.

Out of interest I wonder if the Beeb will show the world group playoff tie ?

VSandhi20 · Futures qualifying

so have GB actually won the group?? im confused cuz if they won their group, does that mean they play-off against another team in another group?

or do they play-off against a team from outside their Euro-Africa Zone and play another country for the right to play-off in July. I doubt they have the chance to play a world group play off cuz they've got to win at least two ties minus the one they going to play against on Friday(i think)