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UNITES STATES TENNIS ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 26, 2010Mary Joe FernandezTIM CURRY: Thanks for joining us for this team announcement for the 2010 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Final which will take place November 6th and 7th. It is the first time the U.S. will be hosting the Fed Cup final since 2000, which is also the last time the U.S. won it. We have with us today Mary Joe Fernandez, the captain, who has led the team to the finals in her first two seasons as captain. I will pass it over to Mary Joe who will make the announcement of the team. CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Thanks for joining. I'm very excited to be in the final once again. As Tim mentioned, to be at home, that's huge. We've played a lot of our ties away. To be able to host the final for the first time in 10 years, trying to win the Fed Cup for the first time in 10 years, is quite a thrill. I'm very excited that the team is ready and motivated to try to win the Fed Cup back. We're going to have the same core of players that have been playing the entire season with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Melanie Oudin, Liezel Huber, and up-and-comer CoCo Vandeweghe, who is actually from the area, who has been playing very well the last couple months and has a win over Vera Zvonareva this summer. I'm really looking forward to it. The players are excited. Again, it's going to be great to be at home. I'd like to open it up to any questions from anyone. Q. Mary Joe, obviously the Italians are much higher rated in singles. Do you consider your team, despite being at home, quite the underdog? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Yeah, definitely. I think it obviously helps to be at home and playing on a surface that the team prefers. Last year being away in Italy, playing on the slow red clay was definitely more of a challenge. The whole team has a ton of experience. Schiavone winning the French this year is playing the best tennis in her career. Pennetta, even though her ranking dropped a bit, I think this time last year she was top 10. She knows how to win matches, all-court game. She's in the doubles championship right now in Doha. Vinci and Errani are good as well. They have great chemistry, been together for a long time. It's a challenge. Again, we're looking forward to it and hoping we can turn things around this time. Q. Can you talk about the season that CoCo has had, especially post US Open, and what made the final decision to pick her after Venus and Serena clearly couldn't play? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Well, I've been watching obviously not just CoCo, but all the young players play. I watched CoCo in San Diego play when she beat Vera Zvonareva and was leading Dulko and had to retire. I had her on the first team as one of the two young ones, that was almost two years ago. She's developed really well and is working very hard, has a big game. After the US Open, she went to Asia for about three weeks, had a lot of wins. I feel she adds a great style to the game because she has a big serve, big, heavy groundstrokes, she can slice. So it just gives us a different sort of game to have. So we have Melanie, very solid. We have Bethanie, who is an all-court player. With CoCo added to the mix, it gives us a little bit of variety. Again, she's been really coming into her own, building in her confidence. She's much fitter. She didn't play very well at the US Open, but rebounded well in Asia. Q. Is it too early to speculate what your singles lineup will be? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Yeah, very early (laughter). If you've been part of the last few Fed Cups, I usually don't make my decision till the day before. Q. As we all know, second year in a row the Williams sisters were keen to play. Second year in a row they've had to withdraw. How frustrating is it for you they're not going to be taking part, given it is on home soil next week? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Sure, I mean, of course it's disappointing. The whole team was really looking forward to having both Venus and Serena on the team. It would be my first time and my team's first time. Being at home obviously gives you even more of an advantage. So it's really unfortunate. I mean, they're both hurt. As you know, Serena has not played since Wimbledon. Venus only played the US Open since Wimbledon. So it's tough. Injuries are tough. For Serena it's such bad luck with her accident, with the glass in her foot. You know, it's part of sports. You have to contend and deal with it. But I'm very fortunate that the group that has gotten me to the final this season and last season is healthy and ready to go. So we're looking forward to it. We hope that Venus and Serena get healthy quickly. Q. What makes the Italians so good in Fed Cup? Incredible record. CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Well, I think, number one, they have a ton of experience. Both Pennetta and Schiavone have gotten better the older they've become. I think the fact they've played together for so long now has helped. They really feed off each other, have great chemistry. They have really good games. I mean, they're different. They're both all-court players but with different styles. Schiavone hits a heavy topspin, can slice, great athlete, tremendous variety. You saw that in her winning the French this year. Pennetta is an all-court player, but solid as a rock, not a lot of weaknesses. I think that combination of different game styles with the consistency has won them a lot of Fed Cup ties. It gets tough. As I mentioned before, Errani and Vinci are solid, too, and they all play good doubles. They really complement each other well. I think that's why we're seeing them in the final again. Q. You've been close to IMG, to Roger. Do you think in any way it's inappropriate for Ted to have this hobby of sports gambling, to have lost the 40,000 betting on Roger in the French final in '07? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: You know, I really don't know anything about that. I'm not here to talk about anything but Fed Cup. I have not been keeping up to date with the news cycle. Q. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the future Fed Cup'ers that you might be invited to San Diego. CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: We're still working on it because the future Fed Cup'ers that were going to come have all been doing really well and they're trying to earn points to get into the Australian Open main draw. There's tournaments the week of Fed Cup. As of now, players like Sloane Stephens, been on the team before, Christina McHale, and also Ally Riske, Alison Riske, has been on fire over in Europe, winning three tournaments and reaching one final. They're all right on the verge of making that cut. We're going to see this week how Sloane does. She's in Puerto Rico, see if any of them can come. If not, we're going to go down the line. But those three have really been making a big push, along with CoCo, which is very exciting. Q. Can you talk about Melanie a little bit. I'm guessing her year in singles hasn't turned out exactly as she's hoped given last year. Do you sense she's looking to finish the year on a high note or has some feelings that she still has something to prove? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: The thing I love about Melanie is she has a really good head on her shoulders. It has been a tough year I think for her with the expectations. She sort of got thrown into this new world quickly after reaching the quarters of the US Open last year. Being so young, I think it's taken her a while to adjust to it. She's realized her goal is to improve, her goal is to get better. Doing that, you might take a couple steps back before taking a few more steps forward. I'm confident she's working on the right things. She loves to compete. Anybody who sees Melanie knows she's got the biggest heart, the biggest fight that you can imagine. That takes you a long way. She's doing the right things to get better and I think that's what matters most. I think now, having this year gone by, she's learned from it. That sophomore slump is done. We're going to continue to see Melanie get better and do well. Again, she has high motivation. She loves playing the game. It was I think a tough adjustments period for her. Q. Those things you talked about outside of her actual tennis, does that make her a good teammate? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: I mean, I've had her on every team I believe since I first won in Arizona. She's phenomenal. She's a team player. It's not about me, me, me, it's about everybody else. Whatever she needs to do, whatever she needs to contribute, she will. That's what you look for when you're playing for your country. She gives it her all. You know no matter what the situation is, no matter what the score is, she's never giving up. She supports everybody else equally. For me she's been a dream for me to have on my teams. Q. About the CoCo pick. You saw her play well at La Costa in the summer. The Fed Cup is being held here. How much does that hometown factor play into her pick? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Not that much. I think I would have picked her no matter where we were playing, as long as it was a faster court or indoors. Again, the fact she's progressing so well, brings a different style of game. She's a strong, tall player with variety, with heavy shots. I mean, the kind of tennis I saw her play against Vera Zvonareva is top-10 tennis. Now it's a matter of her taking it to the next level with consistency, getting even quicker and fitter. But she's having a great run. Played great in Asia. She's starting now to win these matches that she was struggling with a year ago. So a lot of good signs coming from CoCo. Q. You talked about the Italian chemistry. Talk about the chemistry that Melanie and Bethanie and Liezel have. As the core group, they're all such very different personalities, styles. What makes them all work so well together? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: I think they combine well. We have different ages, which maybe is a good thing with Liezel being the veteran, the one that I think everybody really looks up to. She really sets such a good example on and off the court. She's funny and relates to everything that either Melanie or Bethanie might be going through. Melanie, being the young one, is just a breath of fresh air. She is gung-ho about everything, excited about everything. I've never seen her really in a bad mood. She's always a delight to be around. Bethanie is quite a character. She brings a lot of laughter, I think relates to both. She's in the middle age-wise to Liezel and Mel. I think she relates well to both of them. It's just been fun. They practice well together. They really encourage each other. I've seen them doing it during Fed Cup and throughout the year. That's what you really want to build. You sort of want to set that standard across the line, which is something I admire in what Patrick was able to do with the men. You want that camaraderie and respect. When they play each other, you want to beat each other up, but then you can shake hands and say, Good luck on the next one, be there to support them. I've seen that with this core group, which is nice. Q. How happy are you that they'll all be there for the final again? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: So happy. Again, you never know, end of the year, it's always tough. Bodies get banged up. It's not an easy time to everyone. I'm very fortunate that they're able to come back. Q. When will the tennis players go to San Diego? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: I think everybody is going to be there between Sunday and Monday. Q. Who do you think would be a better partner for Huber? CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: We've seen Liezel play with Bethanie quite a bit and win decisive matches. If it was today, that would be the team I would pick. Again, things can change. Liezel is so versatile, she's played with many different partners this year, if she has to play with Melanie or CoCo, she will, as well. She's very capable, very flexible. As of now, the team that's really gotten us here by winning deciding matches has been Liezel and Bethanie. TIM CURRY: Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Thank you, Mary Joe, for your time. As Mary Joe alluded to, the team will be arriving in San Diego Sunday and Monday. Some of the Italians will be coming from the season-ending championships in Doha, as will Liezel Huber. A schedule of events will be emailed to all the credentialed media. There will be a predraw press conference with both teams on Tuesday, a kids clinic on Wednesday and then our official draw ceremony will take place at Sea World Friday at 12 noon, and obviously matches Saturday and Sunday. Thanks again for joining us and we look forward to seeing you in San Diego. CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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