Romania’s Simona Halep and Czech Republic’s Karolina Plsikova will be the stand-out names at next week’s Fed Cup World Group and World Group II first round matches on 9-10 February 2019.
Eleven of the top 20 players have been nominated for next weekend’s Fed Cup ties across 13 venues around the world.
The other top players, who have been nominated are France’s Caroline Garcia, Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, USA’s Madison Keys, Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, Russia’s Daria Kasatkina and Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit.
Former world number 1 Simona Halep will headline a strong Romanian team, which travels to Ostrava to play against Czech Republic. Halep will be joined in the Romanian team by Michaela Buzarnescu, Irina Camelia Begu, Ana Bogdan and Monica Niculescu.
Czech Republic is aiming at scoring the third win over Romania at this event in front of their home fans after clinching the first two ties between these two nations in 1980 and 2016. Czech captain Petr Pala, who guided Czech Republic to seven titles in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, has nominated Karolina Pliskova, Katerina Siniakova, Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Krejjcikova.
Caroline Garcia will make her return to Fed Cup for the French team, which will travel to Liege to play against Belgium in the Country Hall Sart-Tillman. The French team now guided by Julien Benneteau also features Kristina Mladenovic, Alizé Cornet, Pauline Parmentier and Fiona Ferro. Last year’s Australian Open semifinalist Elise Mertens will headline the Belgian team, which also features Alison Van Uytvanck, Kirsten Flipkens and Ysaline Bonaventure.
Germany will be aiming at reaching the Fed Cup semifinals for the second consecutive year, when they face Belarus at the Volkswagen Halle in Braunschweig. Andrea Petkovic will be the stand-out name in a strong German team, which also features Tatjana Maria, Mona Barthel, Laura Siegemund and doubles specialist Anna Lena Groenefeld. Germany are bidding to repeat their first round win against Belarus last year. The Belarusian team captained by Tatiana Poutchek has a lot of talented players in the team like world number 10 Aryna Sabalenka, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Victoria Azarenka, Vera Lapcko and Lidziya Marozava.
US captain Kathy Rinaldi has nominated this year’s Australian Open semifinalist Danielle Collins for the first round tie against Australia in Asheville. Collins was nominated last year for the Fed Cup Final against Czech Republic, but she did not play. The US team wil also feature Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin and Nicole Melichar.
Australian captain has nominated this year’s Sydney finalist Ashleigh Barty, Daria Gavrilova, Priscilla Hon, Kimberley Hon and Astra Sharma.
Camila Giorgi and Belinda Bencic will headline the World Group II between Switzerland and Italy in Biel. Giorgi will make her come-back to the Fed Cup after nearly three years. Her lat appearance at this event dates back to the Fed Cup first round tie against France in 2016.
World Number 13 Anastasjia Sevastova and Jelena Ostapenko will be in the spotlight in the World Group II tie between Latvia and Slovakia in Riga. Dominika Cibulkova will make her first appearance for the Slovakian team in nearly three years.
