Preview For Fed Cup For The US / France Tie

Written by: Staff on 18th April 2014

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

Preview For Fed Cup For The US / France Tie

epa03732011 The shoes of Maria Kirilenko of Russia as she returns during her quarter final match against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 05 June 2013. EPA/YOAN VALAT |

United States vs. France

Fed Cup by BNP Paribas

2014 World Group Playoff

Chaifetz Arena

St. Louis, Mo. * April 19-20

ORDER OF PLAY

The order of play for this weekend’s U.S. vs. France Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Playoff was determined at Friday’s Official Draw Ceremony, hosted at the St. Louis Public Library.

The opening day of play in the best-of-five match series features each country’s No. 1 singles player against the No. 2 player from the opposing country. The order of play for this weekend is as follows:

DAY/LOCAL TIME MATCH PAIRING

Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Singles A: Sloane Stephens (USA) v. Caroline Garcia (FRA)

Singles B: Madison Keys (USA) v. Alize Cornet (FRA)

Sunday, 1:00 p.m. Singles C: Sloane Stephens (USA) vs. Alize Cornet (FRA)

Singles D: Madison Keys (USA) vs. Caroline Garcia (FRA)

Doubles: Christina McHale / Lauren Davis * (USA)

vs. Virginie Razzano / Claire Feuerstein (FRA)

*Lauren Davis replaced Varvara Lepchenko, who is unable to compete due to injury.

DAY 1 PREVIEW NOTES

The United States will face France in the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Playoff on an indoor hard court at the Chaifetz Arena on the campus of Saint Louis University in St. Louis, April 19-20.

The United States brings a strong team to St. Louis, as all four players are ranked in the Top 70. The U.S. Fed Cup team includes Top 20 player and 2013 Australian Open semifinalist Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Olympian Christina McHale and Lauren Davis, who was substituted on the U.S Fed Cup Team for Varvara Lepchenko today (Lepchenko is unable to compete due to injury). All four women have advanced to the third round or better at a Grand Slam event.

In Saturday’s first singles match of the day, world No. 17 and the top player on the United States Fed Cup Team Sloane Stephens will face off against France No. 2 Caroline Garcia. Stephens has competed in two Fed Cup ties, making her Fed Cup debut in the 2012 World Group Playoff in Ukraine, winning in doubles with Liezel Huber, and competing in singles in the 2013 World Group Playoff against Sweden in Delray Beach, Fla., where Stephens lost in three sets to Sofia Arvidsson. Garcia won her first WTA singles title last weekend in Bogota, Colombia, and also swept the doubles title, becoming the first player in nearly two years to pull off a singles-doubles sweep at a WTA-level event—the last was Serena Williams at the 2012 Olympics in London. Garcia is ranked a career-high No. 51 in the world and making her Fed Cup singles debut; she won a dead doubles rubber in the 2013 World Group II Playoff against Kazakhstan. Stephens and Garcia have never played each other in WTA competition.

The second singles match will feature U.S. No. 2 Madison Keys against France’s No. 1 player Alize Cornet. World No. 42 Keys made her Fed Cup debut in Cleveland in February’s World Group Quarterfinal, where she lost in singles and won in doubles with Lauren Davis. World No. 21 Cornet has competed in 12 Fed Cup ties, going 3-10 in singles and 3-4 in doubles. She recently captured her fourth WTA singles title in Poland this past weekend. With Cornet winning in Poland and Garcia winning in Colombia, this the first time in six and a half years that two Frenchwomen have won WTA titles in the same week. Keys and Cornet have never played each other in WTA competition.

This will mark the 13th matchup between the U.S. and France in Fed Cup competition. The U.S. holds an 11-1 advantage, with its only loss coming in the 2003 Final held in Moscow on indoor carpet, where France won, 4-1. The U.S. last played France in Fed Cup in the 2010 World Group Quarterfinal in Lievin, France, with the U.S. winning, 4-1, on an indoor clay court.

The U.S.-France winner will advance to the 2015 World Group and have a chance to compete for the Fed Cup title next year. The loser will be relegated to World Group II. The U.S. has competed in the World Group in 41 of 42 Fed Cup competitions (all but 2012) and is 3-1 in World Group Playoff matches.

Missouri will be hosting Fed Cup for the second time. The state previously hosted the 2002 World Group Playoff in Springfield at the Cooper Tennis Complex, where a team that included nine-time Grand Slam champion Monica Seles and 2014 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Lindsay Davenport swept Israel, 5-0. Dwight Davis, who in 1900 founded Davis Cup, the men’s equivalent to Fed Cup, was born in St. Louis in 1879.

Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the World Cup of Tennis. It is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 95 nations taking part in 2014. The U.S. leads all nations with 17 Fed Cup titles, the last coming in 2000. The U.S. is 37-5 all-time in Fed Cup ties played at home and holds an overall 143-34 record.

WHERE TO WATCH

Tennis Channel will present live daily coverage beginning at 3:30 p.m. CT on Saturday and 1:00 p.m. CT on Sunday.

Topics: Alize Cornet, Bnp Paribas, Fed Cup, Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, Tennis, Tennis Channel, Tennis News