Mary Joe Fernandez will once again look to Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Liezel Huber when the U.S. faces Russia in the Fed Cup semis in Birmingham, Ala., April 24-25.
As for the fourth member of the U.S. contingent, Fernandez says she’s not giving up on Venus or Serena Williams.
“We’re leaving the fourth spot open in case Venus or Serena is healthy enough to compete,” said Fernandez, who last year in her rookie season as captain led the U.S. to the Fed Cup Final for the first time since ’03. The plan is to give them as much time as possible and we hope to make a decision early next week.”
Venus is recovering from the leg injuries she sustained in reaching the Miami final. She hasn’t played a Fed Cup match since ’07. Serena, meanwhile, hasn’t played a match since winning the Aussie Open in January.
“I always want to play Fed Cup,” said Venus. “I mean, to be honest, my goal was to see how I felt physically after [Miami]. I do want to play and support the United States. Also, I think it would be nice to have the matches, too. So, obviously, I’ll have to make a decision pretty quickly. We’ll see soon.”
Fed Cup rules require nations to submit an initial roster of three or four players no less than 10 days prior to the start of play. Captains can change one or two players on the final roster that is submitted up to one hour before the draw, which is held the day before matches begin.
The 18-year-old Oudin (currently ranked a career-high No. 36) is suddenly looking like a Fed Cup veteran, having made four previous appearances. She won two singles matches in helping the U.S. to a 4-1 victory over France in the quarters. If she’s not bumped by Venus or Serena, Mattek-Sands, 25, will be making her third Fed Cup appearance. Against France, she scored wins in singles and doubles (teaming with Huber).
But Fernandez knows that despite her home hard-court advantage (the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex), she’ll have her hands full against the deep-benched Russians, who advanced via a 3-2 victory in Serbia. Fortunately for her Shamil Tarpischev will be without Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Nadia Petrova or Vera Zvonareva. Instead, Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva leads a relatively inexperienced team that includes Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Ekaterina Makarova and Alexandra Kudryavtseva.
The U.S. is 4-3 all-time against Russia, but has lost the last three meetings between the two nations, most recently the ’08 semi in Moscow. The two countries last squared off on American soil in the ’07 semi in Stowe, Vt., with Russians Petrova/Elena Vesnina defeating Venus Williams/Lisa Raymond 7-5, 7-6(1) in the fifth and decisive doubles match to clinch a 3-2 victory.
