Fed Cup Semifinal Nominations, Liezel Huber to Lead Team USA
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Apr 16, 2008 | Print |
The 2008 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas has announced its official team nominations for the April 26-27 semifinals.
Lindsay Davenport, as well as Venus and Serena Williams have decided to skip traveling to Russia for the upcoming tie, leaving doubles specialist Liezel Huber to helm Team USA.
For Huber, who became a nationalized United States citizen last summer, this will be her first opportunity to compete in a team event for her new nation. Headed to Moscow with the co-ranked No. 1 doubles player is a young roster composed of Vania King, Ahsha Rolle, and Madison Brengle.
Russian Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev is expected to field a powerful squad of Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Dinara Safina, and Elena Vesnina.
RUSSIA v USA
Venue: Small Sport Arena “Luzhniki”, Moscow (clay - indoors)
Russia
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Anna Chakvetadze
Dinara Safina
Elena Vesnina
Captain: Shamil Tarpischev
USA
Liezel Huber
Vania King
Ahsha Rolle
Madison Brengle
Captain: Zina Garrison
CHINA, P.R. v SPAIN
Venue: Beijing International Tennis Center, Beijing (hard - indoors)
China, P.R.
Shuai Peng
Jie Zheng
Zi Yan
Tian-Tian Sun
Captain: Hong-Wei Jiang
Spain
Nuria Llagostera Vives
Carla Suarez-Navarro
Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez
Arantxa Parra-Santonja
Captain: Miguel Margets
Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 86 nations entered in 2008. The event was established in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ITF.
Live scoring for the World Group Semifinals and World Group Play-off ties will be available on the Fed Cup website www.fedcup.com throughout the weekend
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Richard | Apr 16, 2008 | Reply
Uh, we are going to get killed with that squad. Maybe Vania will get an upset singles win to avoid a 5-0.
And no Li Na? Man this Fed Cup is not worth watching much. Here’s Russia (sigh) and Spain FTW.
Steve Pouliot | Apr 16, 2008 | Reply
United States of America. How many people do we have overseas in places like Iraq etc - you get my drift. Some of these awesome, brave and loyal citizens are serving their third tour - that is in years, away from family and friends. With all due respect to our team that is participating, I can’t believe some of the higher ranked players couldn’t take a week to represent our great country. P.S. I spent 24 years in the US Navy over half overseas or at sea.
Will.I.AM | Apr 16, 2008 | Reply
Steve, I want to personally thank for everything you’ve done for this great country. It’s unfortunate that our US Squad isn’t with our top players. I’m pretty sure they have valid reasons for not attending. They can’t be everywhere they are needed.
Aaress | Apr 17, 2008 | Reply
It will certainly be tough for the United States against Russia, but I don’t think they’ll see a complete shut-out.
Anna Chakvetadze is not the most predictable of players, so she could drop a rubber to King or Huber, plus I’d pick Huber (and whoever) to win the doubles against Safina & Vesnina.
pov | Apr 19, 2008 | Reply
Steve,
Those in the armed forces who were willing to take a stand against the Iraq invasion are the ones *I* consider brave and loyal. Many seem to want to forget that the USA was founded by those who said “enough” to the shenanigans of their own government.