Fed Cup Preview: Argentina at Spain
Posted on April 21, 2005This year the Fed Cup kicks off its new format, with only eight teams competing in the elite "World Group I" to lift the Fed Cup for 2005. The Fed Cup final also moves from December to the week after the US Open.
"The changes that the ITF has made to Fed Cup come in response to the views of the players and our member National Associations," said ITF President Francesco Ricci "Itti" Bitti. "We believe that the new format can only enhance the competition and bring it closer to the very successful Davis Cup model. Fed Cup is, if not the most important, surely one of the most important team competitions for women in sport and the ITF is convinced that these changes will allow Fed Cup to maintain this position for the future."
Tennis-X will preview one of the World Group I ties each day leading to the Saturday start of the first round of the 2005 Fed Cup:
Argentina at Spain
Site: Club Nazaret, Jerez, ESP
Surface: Red clay outdoors
Ball: Dunlop Fort All Court
Don't confuse this with Argentina and Spain on the men's side. You could put either of these Fed Cup teams on their home clay and they'd be the underdog against any top team such as the Russians, France or the U.S.
Gisela Dulko, Mariana Diaz-Oliva, and Maria-Emilia Salerni make the nucleus of the visiting Argentines against the home Spanish squad of Anabel Medina Garrigues, Nuria Llagostera Vives, Marta Marrero, and Maria Sanchez Lorenzo. If you casual tennis fans see any names in there that ring a bell, let us know.
With both underpowered squads roughly equal on the slow red dirt, this could be one of the most closely-contested ties of the four first-rounders, and the most meaningless. But who cares with the winner to get spanked by France, unless Amelie Mauresmo decides to again take a powder.
"The changes that the ITF has made to Fed Cup come in response to the views of the players and our member National Associations," said ITF President Francesco Ricci "Itti" Bitti. "We believe that the new format can only enhance the competition and bring it closer to the very successful Davis Cup model. Fed Cup is, if not the most important, surely one of the most important team competitions for women in sport and the ITF is convinced that these changes will allow Fed Cup to maintain this position for the future."
Tennis-X will preview one of the World Group I ties each day leading to the Saturday start of the first round of the 2005 Fed Cup:
Argentina at Spain
Site: Club Nazaret, Jerez, ESP
Surface: Red clay outdoors
Ball: Dunlop Fort All Court
Don't confuse this with Argentina and Spain on the men's side. You could put either of these Fed Cup teams on their home clay and they'd be the underdog against any top team such as the Russians, France or the U.S.
Gisela Dulko, Mariana Diaz-Oliva, and Maria-Emilia Salerni make the nucleus of the visiting Argentines against the home Spanish squad of Anabel Medina Garrigues, Nuria Llagostera Vives, Marta Marrero, and Maria Sanchez Lorenzo. If you casual tennis fans see any names in there that ring a bell, let us know.
With both underpowered squads roughly equal on the slow red dirt, this could be one of the most closely-contested ties of the four first-rounders, and the most meaningless. But who cares with the winner to get spanked by France, unless Amelie Mauresmo decides to again take a powder.