Congratulations to the GB Fed Cup Team

Congratulations to Elena Baltacha, Anne Keothavong, Heather Watson, Laura Robson and team captain Judy Murray on GB's qualification for the World Group II playoffs. They have made the best possible start to the Fed Cup year so good luck to them in the playoffs on April 21st/22nd.

Yup, very well done.
I've been pestering Laura on twitter to do a Q&A for us. Either she hasn't seen the messages yet or she has blocked me!

Laura Robson

Can I take a question and answer session with her please

Excellent stuff. Very well done.

Did Laura win her match!

amritia3ee wrote:Did Laura win her match!

Not sure it was played. Wins from Baltacha and Keothavong gave them an unassailable lead.

Laura should have played all the matches

amritia3ee wrote:Laura should have played all the matches

She will get another chance in April

Y I Man wrote:Yup, very well done.
I've been pestering Laura on twitter to do a Q&A for us. Either she hasn't seen the messages yet or she has blocked me!

Hi YI Man, can you do your twitter thang for Judy Murray, that would be quite a coup to get her to do a Q&A for us. It might even attract back some former 606 v2 members and attract a number of new members to. By the way, whatever happened to the Questions sent to Elena Baltacha?



Back on subject, yes congratulations to Judy Murray and her Fed Cup team for topping her Fed Cup group and getting to the play off section:

"GB reach Fed Cup World Group II play-offs by beating Austria
Great Britain powered through to the Fed Cup World Group II play-offs after beating Austria in their Euro/Africa Zone promotion play-off in Israel.

After wins over Portugal, Netherlands and hosts Israel saw them top Pool C, the team faced Pool A winners Austria.

Anne Keothavong beat Patricia Mayer-Achleitner 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 and Elena Baltacha beat Tamira Paszek 6-1 6-4 to give them an unassailable lead.

Britain could face USA or Belarus in the World Group II play-offs in April."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/16889156

"Were the United States to lose this weekend to Belarus, who have Australian Open champion and world number one Victoria Azarenka in their side, that would create the possibility of the British team taking on an American squad including Venus and Serena Williams in their next match."
http://www.businessdorset.co.uk/sport/national/sport/9513380.Fed_Cup_triumph_for_GB/
http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/134567.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/04022012/58/fed-cup-gb-reach-world-group-ii-play-offs.html

Hi Nore.

I tried Judy yesterday asking if she would do a Q&A, or if she could tie down one of her two sons to do one. Nothing back yet, but will keep trying.

The questions were sent to Elena but nothing ever came back despite a number of reminders.

Y I Man

You're thawts on Murray's Australian Open efforts?

Y I Man wrote:Hi Nore.

I tried Judy yesterday asking if she would do a Q&A, or if she could tie down one of her two sons to do one. Nothing back yet, but will keep trying.

The questions were sent to Elena but nothing ever came back despite a number of reminders.

Hi YI Man, I guess they are all busy bees. Anyway kudos to you and the team for all the effort. Maybe next time you get a Q(&A) you could try to link it elsewhere - it could boost the number of new recruits to the site and gain publicity for the forum

Jamie Murray would be a good target (the only grand slam winner in the family - mixed doubles Wimbledon)

Looking at the stats, it appears that this is the furthest GB have got in the competition since the early '90s so quite an achievement. There are four players all capable of a solid singles performances so they appear to have a genuine chance for promotion to the World Group II.

The next DC tie will be very telling. Smith appears to have done an outstanding job in bringing the best out in the players but whether it will be enough to win a tie at this level without AM remains to be seen. In my opinion the team has to prove that they can cope without him at this level. A teams level cannot be entirely based on the achievements of one player.

Good luck to both teams, the future looks brighter with the extremely solid captaincy appointments made by the LTA, encouraging to know they can occasionally make intelligent decisions

well done to the girls
so far so good for Judy Murray.

not sure the DC team can win this one without Andy, but I'm sure they'll give it their best shot. Maybe the crowd getting right behind them will spur them on to producing something really special. It certainly helped Ward at Queens last year.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:well done to the girls
so far so good for Judy Murray.

not sure the DC team can win this one without Andy, but I'm sure they'll give it their best shot. Maybe the crowd getting right behind them will spur them on to producing something really special. It certainly helped Ward at Queens last year.

It really did. They have a pretty solid doubles team so that should provide at least one point and reduce the pressure slightly. They really have to step up here.

Ward needs to win his first match really. If he does that, then anything could happen. No pressure then James

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Ward needs to win his first match really. If he does that, then anything could happen. No pressure then James

Exactly. If ward can rise to the occasion then I will feel a lot more positive about GB Davis Cup in general. A lot of progress has been made under Smith's excellent captaincy so far but this tie will show how far (or not) they have come as a team.

carrieg4 wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Ward needs to win his first match really. If he does that, then anything could happen. No pressure then James

Exactly. If ward can rise to the occasion then I will feel a lot more positive about GB Davis Cup in general. A lot of progress has been made under Smith's excellent captaincy so far but this tie will show how far (or not) they have come as a team.

Hmm.. Difficult to know for sure if "a lot of progress has been made under Smith's excellent captaincy" or not. Turkey, Tunisia, Luxembourg and Hungary weren't exactly the most demanding of opponents whilst Slovakia will be especially in the absence of Andy.

Ward does need to rise to the occasion though if we are to be in with a chance of winning this one.

newballs wrote:

carrieg4 wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Ward needs to win his first match really. If he does that, then anything could happen. No pressure then James

Exactly. If ward can rise to the occasion then I will feel a lot more positive about GB Davis Cup in general. A lot of progress has been made under Smith's excellent captaincy so far but this tie will show how far (or not) they have come as a team.

Hmm.. Difficult to know for sure if "a lot of progress has been made under Smith's excellent captaincy" or not. Turkey, Tunisia, Luxembourg and Hungary weren't exactly the most demanding of opponents whilst Slovakia will be especially in the absence of Andy.

Ward does need to rise to the occasion though if we are to be in with a chance of winning this one.

The progress I see is that they look like more of team now which is a really positive thing. Under Lloyd they looked like understudies and he seemed completely lost in the ties AM didn't play.

carrieg4 Lloyd was no man manager. Bogdanovic may have been a nightmare to help but Lloyd looked clueless in giving the guy any direction at all then stood back it appears to let Draper destroy any confidence the guy had left. He also seemed incapable of doing anything else but kowtow to Murray and all his demands.

Leon Smith obviously knows Andy better and maybe we'll see the benefits when (and if!) we play the stronger teams. Problem is Slovakia ain't that bad and present a real step up in class compared to recent matches so it's a real pity Andy isn't available.

John Lloyd was a masterstroke actually, he deliberately F'd up his captaincy role in order to get a nice big compensation package. Employers just don't have a clue...

on a mildly related note, Annie K has beaten world number 16 and number two seed Dominikia Cibulkova 6-4 6-1 in R1 of the Pattaya Open. That's a big win for her, well done

Pretty dominant scoreline

newballs wrote:carrieg4 Lloyd was no man manager. Bogdanovic may have been a nightmare to help but Lloyd looked clueless in giving the guy any direction at all then stood back it appears to let Draper destroy any confidence the guy had left. He also seemed incapable of doing anything else but kowtow to Murray and all his demands.

Leon Smith obviously knows Andy better and maybe we'll see the benefits when (and if!) we play the stronger teams. Problem is Slovakia ain't that bad and present a real step up in class compared to recent matches so it's a real pity Andy isn't available.

That's the point really, Leon Smith appears to be a good man manager / mentor and the results are easy to see in the confidence and attitude of the team as a whole. The opposition may not have been strong but, then again, neither were we. It is a shame that AM won't be there for this tie but, as a team, GB has to be at a level the team can cope with consistently, not just one player. This will show if the team as a whole are ready for Group 1 - not forgetting that the only GB players to win a live group 1 singles rubber in the last dozen or so years are Murray, Henman and Rusedski. BTW, what demands are you referring to??

Josiah Maiestas wrote:John Lloyd was a masterstroke actually, he deliberately F'd up his captaincy role in order to get a nice big compensation package. Employers just don't have a clue...

You could be right

Mad for Chelsea wrote:on a mildly related note, Annie K has beaten world number 16 and number two seed Dominikia Cibulkova 6-4 6-1 in R1 of the Pattaya Open. That's a big win for her, well done

carrieg4 the point I was trying to make is that Leon Smith seems better able to motivate the team as a whole and not alienate people like Lloyd did.

One of the obvious signs that Lloyd wasn't up to the job was the constant manner in which he seemed to be falling over backwards to accomodate Andy. At least Leon's attitude appears to be "let's get on with it" when Andy's not available and that's good to see.

newballs wrote:carrieg4 the point I was trying to make is that Leon Smith seems better able to motivate the team as a whole and not alienate people like Lloyd did.

One of the obvious signs that Lloyd wasn't up to the job was the constant manner in which he seemed to be falling over backwards to accomodate Andy. At least Leon's attitude appears to be "let's get on with it" when Andy's not available and that's good to see.

Agree 100%

update:

GB will play Sweden away in the play-off. Sweden have two players ranked inside the top 100 - Johanna Larsson (62) and Sofia Arvidsson (74) - rankings roughly similar to GB's top two, so it should make for an interesting tie. Where GB have the edge is in strength in depth (not something you'd normally say about GB tennis ) as Sweden have no other players ranked in the top 500.