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Vandeweghe gets US nod for Fed Cup
SAN DIEGO - United States captain Mary Joe Fernandez sprang a surprise on Friday when she selected untried teenager Coco Vandeweghe for the opening singles in this weekend’s Fed Cup final against holders Italy.
The 18-year-old will become the second American to make her debut in the final of the women’s showpiece team event when she takes on Italian number one Francesca Schiavone in the first match on Saturday.
Chanda Rubin was the first US player to achieve the feat in the 1995 final against Spain in Valencia where she lost her opening singles to Conchita Martinez but won her reverse match against Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.
In Saturday’s second match on the indoor hardcourt surface at the San Diego Sports Arena, American Bethanie Mattek-Sands will play against Italy’s Flavia Pennetta.
A unique draw ceremony was conducted at San Diego’s popular tourist attraction SeaWorld where Clyde the sea lion picked out Vandeweghe’s tennis ball first from a glass bowl to determine the opening singles match.
Although Vandeweghe, at 114th, is ranked well behind her Fed Cup team mates with Melanie Oudin 67th and Mattek-Sands 58th, her aggressive style helped her get the nod against Italian players who prefer competing on clay.
“With her height, her serve and her ability to really hit the ball up here, that’s a good choice to start the day,” Fernandez told reporters about the six-foot one-inch Vandeweghe. “It was really a match-up decision.”
Fernandez has also selected the hard-hitting teenager for Sunday’s reverse singles but said the US lineup could change.
Changeable matchups
“It’s the matchups that are important so very easily we could switch,” she added. “Melanie (Oudin) could play the big match. Melanie has been my MVP of Fed Cup really. When things count, when things matter, you always want Melanie in there.”
However Sunday pans out, Vandeweghe is eager to play French Open champion Schiavone in the biggest match of her career.
“I’m really excited to represent my country tomorrow,” she said. “Just to know that Mary Joe and my team mates think that I can beat Francesca tomorrow is great motivation for me. I can’t ask for anything better.”
Asked if she believed she could beat the world number seven, Vandeweghe replied: “Of course I do. You don’t ever want to go out to a match that you think you’re going to lose.”
In Sunday’s reverse singles, Mattek-Sands faces Schiavone while Vandeweghe meets Pennetta before Liezel Huber and Oudin play Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the concluding doubles.
The Italians are heavy favourites to win the title for the third time in five years against an under-strength US lineup deprived of their top two players, Serena and Venus Williams, because of injury.
While the Americans lead all nations with 17 Fed Cup titles, they have not triumphed since 2000 when they crushed Spain 5-0 the last time the final was held on US soil.
Italy whitewashed the US 4-0 in last year’s final in Reggio Calabria.
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