Eurosport - Tue, 03 Feb 15:23:00 2009
Britain has been given a good draw for the Fed Cup in Estonia, facing Hungary, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in the round-robin matches.
The British team of Anne Keothavong, Mel South, Elena Baltacha and Sarah Borwell will need to top their group if they are to have a chance of winning promotion from the Europe/Africa Zone Group I to World Group II.
"The draw could have been worse," said team captain Nigel Sears. "We're in a pretty good group.
Hungary look to be the toughest team and Luxembourg will be no push-over.
"Netherlands are top seeds in the group but they look to be the weakest team on paper.
"We will take nothing for granted and approach each match one at a time. The team is in good spirits, eager and ready to play."
The British team will breath a sigh of relief that they have avoided the toughest potential opponents in the Zone, namely the Belarus and Romania teams, both of whom have two players inside the world top-50; Poland, who count world number nine Agnieszka Radwanska in their ranks; and Estonia, who have few star players but will enjoy home advantage during the Tallinn matches.
The 15 teams in the group have been divided in to four groups for the round-robin phase, with the four group winners playing off for two promotion spots to World Group II and the four group losers going in to two relegation matches, with the losers going down to Europe/Africa Zone Group II.
Britain's Fed Cup opponents:
Netherlands
Topped their pool in 2008 but lost the promotion play-off against a Serbian team that included Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic. Their current highest-ranked players are Arantxa Rus (155) and Michaella Krajicek (202).
Hungary
On paper the strongest team in the group with two players inside the top 100, Agnes Szavay (25) and Melinda Czink (83). Beat Britain 2-1 in Pool B last year but missed out on a play-off spot after losing to Switzerland 1-2.
Luxembourg
Weak on paper with no players in the world's top 300, but Anne Kremer has a career high ranking of 18th while Claudine Schaul was a top-50 player in 2004. Finished third in their pool last year after defeats by Netherlands and Bulgaria and a win over Portugal.
Comment 1 - 5 of 5
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SERBS V BOSNIA HAVE NO ALTERNATIVES TO OFFER ............... !
CUSTOM HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE ANCIENT GREECE THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO
krajicek is rubbish these days.
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I wouldn't call Holland and Hungary an easy draw if they have Michaëlla Krajícek and Ágnes Szávay! (can't just check right now, because the Fed Cup site is down for maintenance).
GOOD LUCK OUR BRIT GIRLS IN THE FED CUP.
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