Venus and Serena to Play for U.S. Fed Cup Team Against Italy
The USTA and United States Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez have announced that world number one and 19-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams, former world number one and world number 15 Venus Williams, number 45 Alison Riske, and number 63 Christina McHale will represent the U.S. in the 2015 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Playoff against Italy. The best-of-five match series will be played at the Circolo Tennis Brindisi in Brindisi, Italy, April 18-19.
The winner of this tie advances to the World Group in 2016 for a chance to compete for the Fed Cup title. The losing nation will be relegated to World Group II in 2016. Italian Fed Cup Captain Corrado Barazzutti named number 14 Sara Errani, number 27 Flavia Pennetta, number 34 Camila Giorgi, and number 54 Karin Knapp to face Team USA.
“I am thrilled to have Serena and Venus playing with us again” said Fernandez. “This team also has depth with Christina, who has a lot of Fed Cup experience, and with Alison, who has had a great 12 months and is playing in her second Fed Cup. Italy has been a challenge since they have been such a strong team over the years, but we look forward to trying to get a win to get back into the World Group next year.”
Play begins on Saturday, April 18, with two singles matches featuring each country’s number one player against the other country’s No. 2 player. Sunday’s schedule features two “reverse singles” matches, where the No. 1 players square off and then the No. 2 players meet, followed by the doubles match. Play on Saturday begins at 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) and on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. ET). Tennis Channel will present daily coverage.
This match will mark the fifth meeting between the U.S. and Italy in the last seven years, with Italy winning the last four matchups. Overall, however, the U.S. leads the head-to-head series, 9-4. The U.S. last faced Italy a year ago in the World Group Quarterfinal in Cleveland, where Italy won, 3-1; three American Fed Cup rookies competed in that tie.
The U.S. defeated Italy in its first-ever Fed Cup tie, in 1963, and last defeated the country in 2003. The U.S. is 9-11 in away ties since the World Group format was in instituted in 1995 and holds an overall record of 144-35.
World No. 1 Serena, 33, holds an 11-0 singles record and 3-0 doubles record in Fed Cup competition. She played earlier this year in the Fed Cup World Group II First Round against Argentina in Buenos Aires, where she defeated world No. 209 Maria Irigoyen, 7-5, 6-0. Williams also helped the U.S. capture the 1999 Fed Cup title. She won her 19th Grand Slam title earlier this year at the 2015 Australian Open and won her 66th career WTA singles title at the Miami Open earlier this month. In 2012, she captured the Olympic gold medal in singles and women’s doubles, with sister Venus, at the Summer Games in London. With the Olympic singles win, Williams joined Steffi Graf as the only women to complete the Golden Slam—winning the Olympics and the four Grand Slam events—and she is the only person to accomplish the feat in both singles and doubles. Williams regained the No. 1 ranking in the world on Feb. 18, 2013, becoming the oldest woman (at age 31) to hold the top spot since the WTA computer rankings were introduced in November 1975. This was Williams' sixth stint at No. 1 and took place nearly 11 years after she first became the No. 1-ranked tennis player in the world. Williams has also been ranked No. 1 in doubles in her career. (She holds 21 doubles titles with Venus, including 13 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles.)
World No. 15 Venus Williams, 34, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since 2010 at this year’s Australian Open and also reached the semifinals of the WTA event in Doha, Qatar, and the quarterfinals of the Miami Open this year. She re-entered the Top 20 in 2013 for the first time since revealing that she had been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder, following the 2011 US Open. Venus holds a 21-4 overall record in Fed Cup competition (17-2 in singles), joining sister Serena on the team that defeated Argentina in Buenos Aires earlier this year in the Fed Cup World Group II First Round; her second singles win clinched the tie. She was also a member of the title-winning team in 1999. Venus is a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and has won 46 career WTA singles titles. She has been ranked No. 1 in both singles and doubles. In Olympic play, she has won three gold medals in doubles (with Serena) in 2000, 2008 and 2012, and she captured the singles gold medal in 2000.
World No. 45 Alison Riske, 24, made her Fed Cup debut last year in the World Group Quarterfinal against Italy, where she lost to Karin Knapp. Riske won her first career WTA singles title in 2014 in Tianjin, China, and peaked at No. 40 last June after consistent results on the WTA tour. Riske gained national attention after defeating then-world No. 7 Petra Kvitova in the third round for her best Grand Slam result. She advanced to the third round of the 2014 Australian Open, upsetting No. 23 seed Elena Vesnina in the first round, while also reaching the third round of Wimbledon in 2014 for the second straight year. This year, Riske reached the semifinals of the WTA event in Hobart, Australia.
World No. 63 Christina McHale, 22, made her debut for the U.S. Fed Cup team in the 2010 quarterfinals and has a 4-4 record in Fed Cup play (all singles). McHale last played in 2014 Fed Cup Quarterfinal against Italy, where she lost in three sets to Karin Knapp. In 2014, McHale advanced to her first career WTA singles final in Acapulco, Mexico, as well as reaching the semifinals in Seoul and Strasbourg. She was the youngest member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic tennis team and reached the third round of three Grand Slam events that year. In 2011, McHale established herself as the second-highest-ranked American behind Serena Williams and became the youngest player in the WTA Top 50 after defeating then-world No. 9 Marion Bartoli en route to the third round of the US Open. She also won the bronze medal in singles and the silver in doubles at the 2011 Pan Am Games. As a junior player, she swept the singles and doubles titles at the 2009 USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships to earn wild cards into the US Open. McHale trains with the USTA Player Development program in Boca Raton, Fla.
The United States leads all nations with 17 Fed Cup titles, the last coming in 2000. Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the World Cup of Tennis. It is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 99 nations taking part in 2015.
