Fed Cup Rules Overview     Fed Cup "ties" consist of 5 matches ("rubbers"), 4 singles and 1 doubles. Each country's # 1 singles player plays the other country's # 2 singles player the first day (the order of play decided by lot), and on the 2nd day they swap and the # 1s play each other, followed by the # 2s, followed by the doubles match. The teams are run by non-playing "captains" who are usually highly-regarded coaches and/or former players. The 3rd and 4th players on each team, at the captain's discretion, might not play at all, or might play doubles, or might substitute for an injured or struggling # 1 or # 2 player.     Only teams in World Group are playing for the Cup itself. Teams in World Group II are playing to get into the World Group (formerly known as World Group I) next year; teams in "Zonal Groups" are playing to get into World Group II in a future year.     Fed Cup rules state that player changes for the day's opening singles match must be made by the captains with the referee one hour prior to the start of play. Player changes for the second match of the day must be made by ten minutes after the conclusion of the first match. On Sunday, changes in the doubles line-up can be made up to 15 minutes after the end of the second singles match.

Fed Cup Structure Overview     About 95 nations are competing in Fed Cup play, at 3 levels. 2005 was the first year that the Fed Cup used a a 3-tiered system similar to the Davis Cup system. 8 teams compete at the top level, called World Group (formerly called World Group I), and 8 more teams at the 2nd level, called World Group II. The remaining 73 teams are placed in Zonal Groups I, II, and III. Only the 8 teams in World Group are competing to win the Fed Cup in any given year; the teams in the lower 2 levels are competing to move up into World Group.     The 4 1st round (quarterfinal) winners in World Group each year will remain in World Group the following year. The four 1st round losers in World Group each year will play off against the 4 winners from World Group II, to determine the other 4 entries in World Group for the following year; the 4 losers of these playoffs are in World Group II the following year. Similarly, the 4 losers from World Group II each year will playoff against 4 Zonal Group winners to determine the other 4 members of World Group II the following year.     All these playoffs are held at the same time as the World Group semifinals, which are the weekend following Wimbledon.     So, essentially the teams play their 1st "tie" to try to advance, and if they lose, they play a 2nd "tie" which they must win to avoid being demoted. full explanation of Fed Cup structure     The remaining 79 or so nations playing Fed Cup tennis play in "Zonal Groups" each year, trying to get into World Group II in the future.     There are three Zonal Groups, which also have levels, called groups, that the teams must work their way up through. The Europe/Africa Zone has 3 levels, while the Americas Zone and the Asia/Oceania Zone each have 2 levels.     Thus a team playing in Group III of the Europe/Africa Zone is trying to get into E/A Group II next year, E/A Group I the following year, World Group II the year after that, then to get into World Group I, and then, if they kept winning each year, can play in World Group I for the Fed Cup.

On Sunday at Sochi, Russia, in the semifinals of the 2015 Fed Cup World Group competition, doubles #7 Elena Vesnina and doubles #33 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia defeated the German team of d#47 Andrea Petkovic & d#91 Sabine Lisicki, 6-2, 6-3 (Elena is shown during the match).     The win gave the Russkis a 3-2 victory over the Germans. Russia had led 2-0 after the first day of play, but Germany had brought the score to 2-2 on Sunday with #11 Petkovic and #14 Angelique Kerber, who had been rested on Saturday, coming off the bench to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova and Pavlyuchenkova.     Elena said: "It was an unbelievable victory, and we are so excited and I am so proud of my team. The whole team worked so hard, and I just want to thank my captain [Anastasia Myskina], as she was amazing and helped us so much." ITF story     Meanwhile, at Ostrava, Czech Republic, the 2014 Wimbledon and New Haven champion, 25 year old #4 (career high: #2) Petra Kvitova from Fulnek, Czech Republic, defeated the 2015 finalist at Monterrey and Acapulco (and 2014 champion at Bogota), 21 year old 25th seeded #29 (career high: #28) Caroline Garcia from Lyon, France, 6-4, 6-4 (photo shown).     The win put the Czechs ahead of France 3-0 in the best of five, clinching a place Czech Repbublic in November's Fed Cup final.

    Petra said: "I saw Garcia yesterday when she played against Lucie [Safarova] and she played very well. I was prepared for a very tough match and I was lucky to break her at the beginning of the [first] set. I was a little bit more relaxed than I was before. I’m glad that my serve worked much better than yesterday." ITF story

    The 4th singles rubber was not played. France won the dead doubles rubber, making the final score Czech Republic 3, France 1.

On Sunday at Krakow, Poland, in the quarterfinals of the 2015 Fed Cup World Group competition, the 2015 champion at Brisbane (and 2014 champ at Beijing, Roland Garros, Madrid & Stuttgart), 27 year old #2 (and former #1) Maria Sharapova of Russia (residence: Manhattan Beach, CA and Bradenton, FL), defeated the 2013 champ at Seoul, Sydney and Auckland, 25 year old #8 (career high: #2) Agnieszka Radwanska from Krakow, Poland, 6-1, 7-5 (Maria is shown after match point).     The match win clinched victory for the Russians over the Poles in the best of five, 3-0.     Maria said: "It’s a great feeling to be able to finish it off in the way that we did. It became really tense at the end, I’ve never been in that position and I definitely felt like I had a lot of responsibility and I really wanted to do that today." ITF story     Following standard Fed Cup procedure when the outcome has already been decided, the 4th singles match was not played. Russkis Vitalia Diatchenko and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also won the "dead" doubles rubber, making the final score Russia 4, Poland 0.     Russia will host Germany in the Fed Cup semifinals, April 18-19.     Meanwhile, at Genoa, Italy, the 2014 champion at Bogota, 21 year old #30 (career high: #30) Caroline Garcia from Lyon, France, defeated the 2014 finalist at Katowice, 20 year old #31 (career high: #31) Camila Giorgi of Italy (residence: France), 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 (photo shown).

    The win evened the score between France and Italy at 2-2. Italy led 2-0 after Saturday's matches, but #74 Kristina Mladenovic of France upset #13 Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 6-3 in the first match on Sunday.

    Doubles #20 Mladenovic and doubles #30 Garcia then returned to the court for the deciding doubles match, and defeated the world's doubles #1s, Sara Errani & Robert Vinci, 6-1, 6-2, giving the French a 3-2 victory over the Italians. It was only the 7th time in Fed Cup World Group history that a team has won after being 0-2 down.

    France will play at Czech Republic in the Fed Cup semifinals, April 18-19.

    In World Group II action, the USA, led by Serena and Venus Williams, defeated Argentina 3-1 at Buenos Aires.

    World Group II teams are playing for a place in April's playoffs to determine which teams are in the World Group in 2016. Only the teams in the World Group are competing for the actual Fed Cup title in any given year.

    In the World Group playoffs on April 18-19, World Group Round 1 (quarterfinal) losers Italy, Poland, Canada and Australia will compete along with World Group II winners USA, Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland.

    World Group playoffs pairings: USA at Italy, Australia at Netherlands, Switzerland at Poland, and Romania at Canada.

    Winners of the World Group playoffs will play in the World Group in 2016 (actually competing for the Fed Cup); losers will play in World Group II (competing to get into the World Group in 2017).

    In the World Group II playoffs on April 18-19, Paraguay will play at Serbia, Sweden at Slovakia, Belarus at Japan, and Spain at Argentina.

Find tennis shoes made by: adidas — Nike — Fila — Reebok
Find tennis racquets made by: Yonex — Wilson — Head — Prince — Babolat
Find tennis balls made by: Wilson — Dunlop — Penn — Tretorn — Slazenger