Tennis Panorama News

The USTA held a media conference call on Tuesday with U.S. Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez. She officially named the US Fed Cup team to take on Germany in Stuttgart April 16-17 in the World Group Playoff. Tennis Panorama News listened in on the call.

The questions were posed by Matt Cronin of Fox Sports, Erin Bruehl of USTA.com and Joe Fleming of USA Today. The following is the official transcript from the conference call:

An Interview With:

U.S. FED CUP CAPTAIN

MARY JOE FERNANDEZ

TIM CURRY: Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We have with us U.S. Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez, who will announce the U.S. team that will compete in Stuttgart,Germany, April 16th and 17th in the World Group Playoff. This is just the third time the U.S. has played in the World Group Playoff in Fed Cup, and it will be the first time the U.S. is actually playing on the road for a World Group Playoff tie. That being said, I will pass the call on to Mary Joe to tell us the roster.

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Thank you, Tim. Hello, everyone. I am pleased to announce the United States Fed Cup Team coming up in already a week’s time. We’ll be in Germany. The team is going to consist of  Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Melanie Oudin, Christina McHale, and Liezel Huber. I’ve had all of those members on my team the last couple of years, and I’m looking forward to having them again. It’s going to be obviously a tough match away on the red clay, a big challenge. The Germans have a very strong team. We look forward to challenges and doing our best. So I open it up to questions.

Q. I understand Venus Williams is going to be traveling with the team to Germany although you’re not expecting her to be able to play because of her injury that’s kept her out since January. Can you just explain the decision to have her go with the team and how this may or may not affect her Olympic eligibility?

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Sure. Tim can talk about the Olympics, but she is traveling to Germany to be with the team. She’s been rehabbing her injury from Australia. Hopefully, she’ll be able to practice. I don’t expect her to play, but, obviously, in the next ten days if she’s playing great and feeling fit, then there’s always that possibility.

TIM CURRY: And regarding the Olympic eligibility, I’ve got a statement from the USTA on Venus and her status. It’s as follows:

“The USTA’s position has been that if a player makes himself/herself available for Davis Cup or Fed Cup, and if the player is physically unable to compete, then the player can travel to the tie to support the team and will have fulfilled that portion of the player’s Olympic eligibility requirements. Venus made herself available for the USA vs. Germany tie but will be unable to compete due to injury. We’ve been advised by Venus’ management that Venus intends to make the trip to Stuttgart to support our U.S. Fed Cup team against Germany.”

**See statement regarding Serena Williams at the end of transcript (not read during call)

Q. I was hoping you could just talk about the matchup against Germany, how Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Melanie Oudin, or certainly even Christina McHale matched up against the German team. I know Bethanie’s had a couple of tough three-set matches against Andrea Petkovic the last few months.

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Both Melanie and Bethanie have played Petkovic. Both Andrea Petkovic and Julia Goerges. Sabine Lisicki is another member of the team that’s a potential she could play. The matches have been tough. They’ve been very tight. Obviously, playing on red clay adds a different dimension to it. All of the players are playing this weekend in Charleston. Some played a USTA Pro Circuit event last week, so they’re getting used to the clay court surface. We’re going to get there for practice on Monday to start getting used to the conditions and the surface. They’re all tough players. You saw Petkovic in Miami, her abilities. And she’ll probably be confident, having beaten Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic on the way to the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson. It’s going to be an uphill battle against Petkovic. Goerges is dangerous. She can play lights out tennis, big forehand, pretty big serve, but she can also mistakes.

We’re going to have to be solid. We’re going to have to mix it up and just see what the matches are, like, again, Lisicki could play. She’s playing today in Charleston. She’s another dangerous opponent with a big serve and powerful ground stroke. As it gets closer, we’ll break it down even more and look at matchups and look at past history and decide what the best strategy will be.

Q. Can you break down the decision as to whether or not you’re going to play maybe Christina McHale over Melanie Oudin, who’s been in somewhat of a slump, and Christina’s had a pretty good last couple of months. One yesterday was a tough tiebreaker against Watson.

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: That’s right.

Q. But her confidence seems to be up. She’s moving well, and it doesn’t seem like Melanie has been able to get much going in the last month or two.

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: That will definitely be a consideration, who’s more confident. And hopefully, Melanie will play well this week and build her confidence. But that’s something that will factor into my decision. Obviously, the clay and the movement and who’s training well and who’s feeling the best will also come to it. And the matchups. I have to take into consideration Melanie just beat Julia Goerges, if they decide to play. But Christina has had a good run here at Indian Wells, three sets against Nadia Petrova. Just won a few matches last week. She won yesterday and plays today again. So it’s good to have the options. Yes, I will definitely look at who’s more confident at the time. You’ve seen Melanie in Fed Cup. Even when she hasn’t been playing that well, she finds a way to rise to the occasion when she’s playing for her country and her teammates. I’ve got to take that into consideration as well. She’s been one of the most valuable players on my team throughout the last couple of years.

Q. Did you consider bringing Vania King possibly over Melanie Oudin? Because Vania actually won yesterday too, and I know she’s not a great clay court player, but she can be resourceful.

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Sure, I considered all the players, Vania King and Coco Vandeweghe. Vania’s not had that much success recently, and I didn’t feel she on clay was her best surface. I feel Melanie has had good results in the past on the clay court. Again, when Fed Cup comes around, Melanie for some reason really flies under those conditions. It was a tough, obviously, decision to make, but I went with the team that I thought would do best.

Q. I knew Venus was going to travel with the team. I haven’t heard from Serena’s camp at all on that. I know, it’s not a safe thing necessarily for her to fly. But did you talk to her at all? Did she actually think about just flying over to be with the team because of the whole Olympic eligibility thing?

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: I think prior to her embolism she did, but I think right now doctors advise against traveling. She has to, I think, be seen every day. We’re just hoping she can have a speedy recovery and get healthy. Tennis is really the last thing we’re concerned about. We’re just concerned that Serena gets better.

Q. Just thinking about the position we’re in with the World Group Playoff, which we aren’t in very often, does that add pressure to the players, to you, to everybody involved?

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Well, there’s always pressure when you’re playing for your country and your team. I was part of one of those ties where we had to play to stay in the World Group. It means so much to our country and our

team to stay in the World Group. Having said that, we’ve had a really good run, and we’ve had tough matches. We played Belgium in the first round. Being seeded second, it was tough to come against Kim Clijsters and Yanina Wickmayer away. And we’re facing a tough draw again against Germany playing away. It’s a tough assignment, but we look forward to the challenge. We’re going to do our all and give our best as usual to get through and to win and to stay in the World Group. That’s the goal. We want to fight for the World Group trophy next year.

Q. Mary Joe, because you are an excellent clay court player and we haven’t had a great generation of clay courters in a while, is there anything you can do in your time with the girls to help them be better clay court

players?

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: I really emphasize consistency. We played France last year on the clay, and it’s a different mentality. You really have to be prepared to be out there all day to play high percentage tennis. It’s tough when our players have been better on the hard courts the last decade and more of a power mentality of going for your shots and hitting winners. And really on clay, I don’t know how fast — it’s indoor clay, which I think is a good thing.

I don’t know how fast the court will be or how slow the court will be. But it is a mentality of being patient and really working the point, playing very high percentage until you get your right opportunity.

You have to really drill that in early in the week and do a lot of drills related to that. So it is. It’s not easy. Melanie, I think, is a little bit more used to it because I think she’s played a little bit more clay than everyone else. But that’s all. In five days you just have to get that base of not missing and playing heavy balls but with a lot of margin.

Q. Mary Joe, just as you’re mentioning France last year, how much advantage does that give you guys that this was the exact same team Christina McHale ended up subbing in that played indoors on clay away against France? How much does that help to have that experience and not necessarily the slow clay outside in Italy of a year and a half ago?

CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: It definitely helps. You know, they’ve played indoor clay before, and it’s not the first time. So that’s always an advantage to have a little bit of experience. But it’s a different team that we’re playing up against and different circumstances.

It’s nice that we have done the surface. We’ve been there. But it’s a new experience. So how it goes.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

USTA Statement Regarding Serena Williams’ 2012 Olympic Eligibility Requirements

“Our primary concern is Serena’s health and supporting her needs to get better. We’ve been advised by Serena’s management that Serena

needs to remain in the United States to receive daily medical treatment. In regards to the 2012 Olympic eligibility issue, the rules are written in

such a way that they are open to interpretation. We are not focused on Serena’s Olympic eligibility right now. We are focused on beating Germany.”

Tennis Panorama News participates in many tennis media conference calls. “On The Call” serves to give readers an inside view of tennis news.