The U.S. Fed Cup team will square off with the Czech Republic in the 2018 Fed Cup final on Nov. 10-11 in Prague, but 2019 is fast approaching, and on Tuesday the ITF announced first-round match-ups for next year’s campaign.
Allotted a home tie by virtue of reaching this year’s final, the U.S. squad will open on Feb. 9-10 against Australia at a U.S. site to be determined.
The USTA will commence with a request-for-proposal process in the coming weeks for potential host sites via www.usta.com/fedcup. It will mark the fourth straight year the U.S. will have hosted its first-round tie. This year the U.S. hosted the Netherlands in Asheville, N.C., a tie that saw the U.S. advance to the semifinals in front of sellout crowds while generating an estimated $3.5 million impact for the local economy.
The U.S. last faced Australia in 2016 in Brisbane where they won 4-0, and are 9-5 all-time against the Aussies. As of this week the Top 4-ranked Australian players are No. 16 Ashleigh Barty, No. 23 Daria Gavrilova, No. 62 Ajla Tomljanovic and No. 64 Sam Stosur.
No. 3-ranked Sloane Stephens leads the Americans on the WTA rankings, followed by No. 12 Madison Keys, No. 14 Venus Williams, No. 19 CoCo Vandeweghe, and No. 27 Serena Williams.
Other first-round Fed Cup World Group I meetings are the Czechs hosting world No. 1 Simona Halep and Romania, Belgium hosting France and Germany hosting Belarus.
Fed Cup is the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with approximately 100 nations taking part each year. The U.S. holds an overall 151-36 record in Fed Cup competition and has won a record 18 titles. For more information, including access to player and historical Fed Cup records, please go to www.usta.com/fedcup or www.fedcup.com.
