	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNITED STATES TENNIS ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 5, 2011

Mary Joe Fernandez

TIM CURRY: Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We have with us U.S. Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez, who will announce the U.S. team that will compete in Stuttgart, Germany, April 16th and 17th in the World Group Playoff. This is just the third time the U.S. has played in the World Group Playoff in Fed Cup, and it will be the first time the U.S. is actually playing on the road for a World Group Playoff tie.
That being said, I will pass the call on to Mary Joe to tell us the roster.
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Thank you, Tim.
Hello, everyone. I am pleased to announce the United States Fed Cup Team coming up in about, gosh, already a week's time. We'll be in Germany. The team is going to consist of Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Melanie Oudin. Christina McHale, and Liezel Huber. I've had all of those members on my team the last couple of years, and I'm looking forward to having them again.
It's going to be obviously a tough match away on the red clay, a big challenge. The Germans have a very strong team. We look forward to challenges and doing our best. So I open it up to questions.

Q. Hi, Mary Joe. I understand Venus Williams is going to be traveling with the team to Germany although you're not expecting her to be able to play because of her injury that's kept her out since January. Can you just explain the decision to have her go with the team and how this may or may not affect her Olympic eligibility?
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Sure. Tim can talk about the Olympics, but she is traveling to Germany to be with the team. She's been rehabbing her injury from Australia. Hopefully, she'll be able to practice.
I don't expect her to play, but, obviously, in the next ten days if she's playing great and feeling fit, then there's always that possibility.
TIM CURRY: And regarding the Olympic eligibility, I've got a statement from the USTA on Venus and her status. It's as follows: "The USTA's position has been, if a player makes himself or herself available for Davis Cup or Fed Cup and that the player physically is unable to compete, then the player can travel to the tie to support the team and it will fit that portion of the player's eligibility requirement."
Venus made herself available for the USA versus Germany tie but will be unable to compete due to injury. We've been advised by Venus' management that she intends to make the trip to Stuttgart to support our Fed Cup Team against Germany. That's pretty much all we have to say about her eligibility in regards to this tie.

Q. Hey, Mary Joe. I was hoping you could just talk about the matchup against Germany, how Bethanie, Melanie, or certainly even Christina matched up against the German team. I know Bethanie's had a couple of tough three-set matches against Petkovic the last few months.
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Both Melanie and Bethanie have played Petkovic. Both Petkovic and Goerges. Lisicki is another member of her team that's a potential she could play. The matches have been tough. They've been very tight. Obviously, playing on red clay adds a different dimension to it.
But most of all -- actually, all the players are playing this weekend in Charleston. Some played a Challenger last week, so they're getting used to the clay court surface. We're going to get there for practice on Monday to start getting used to the conditions and the surface.
They're both -- they're all tough players. You saw Petkovic in Miami, her abilities. And she'll probably be confident, having beaten Wozniacki and Jankovic on the way to the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson.
It's going to be an uphill battle against Petkovic. Goerges is dangerous. She can play lights out tennis, big forehand, pretty big serve, but she can also mistakes.
We're going to have to be solid. We're going to have to mix it up and just see what the matches are, like, again, Lisicki could play. She's playing today in Charleston. She's another dangerous opponent with a big serve and powerful ground stroke.
As it gets closer, we'll break it down even more and look at matchups and look at past history and decide what the best strategy will be.

Q. Thanks, Mary Joe.

Q. Hi, Mary Joe. Can you break down a little bit the decision as to whether or not you're going to play maybe Christina over Melanie, who's had -- who's been in somewhat of a slump, and Christina's had a pretty good last couple of months. One yesterday was a tough tiebreaker against Watson.
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: That's right.

Q. But her confidence seems to be up. She's moving well, and it doesn't seem like Melanie has been able to get much going in the last month or two.
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: That will definitely be a consideration, you know, who's more confident. And hopefully, Melanie will play well this week and build her confidence. But that's something that will factor into my decision.
Obviously, the clay and the movement and who's training well and who's feeling the best will also come to it. And the matchups. I have to take into consideration Melanie just beat Goerges, if they decide to play. But Christina has had a good run here at Indian Wells, three sets against Petrova. Just won a few matches last week against the Challenger. She won yesterday and plays today again.
So it's good to have the options. Yes, I will definitely look at who's more confident at the time. You've seen Melanie in Fed Cup. Even when she hasn't been playing that well, she finds a way to rise to the occasion when she's playing for her country and her teammates. I've got to take that into consideration as well. She's been one of the most valuable players on my team throughout the last couple of years.

Q. No doubt. One more. Did you consider bringing Vania possibly over Melanie? Because Vania actually won yesterday too, and I know she's not a great clay court player, but she can be resourceful.
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Sure, I considered all the players, Vania and Coco. Vania's not had that much success recently, and I didn't feel she on clay was her best surface. I feel Melanie has had good results in the past on the clay court.
Again, when Fed Cup comes around, Melanie for some reason really flies under those conditions. It was a tough, obviously, decision to make, but I went with the team that I thought would do best.

Q. Just one more quick one. You know, I knew Venus was going to travel with the team. I haven't heard from Serena's camp at all on that. I know, obviously, it's not a safe thing necessarily for her to fly. But did you talk to her at all? Did she actually think about just flying over to be with the team because of the whole Olympic eligibility thing?
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: I think prior to her embolism she did, but I think right now doctors advise against traveling. She has to, I think, be seen every day. We're just hoping she can have a speedy recovery and get healthy. Tennis is really the last thing we're concerned about. We're just concerned that Serena gets better.

Q. Hi, Mary Joe. Just thinking about the position we're in with the World Group Playoff, which we aren't in very often, does that add pressure to the players, to you, to everybody involved?
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Well, there's always pressure when you're playing for your country and your team. I was part of one of those ties where we had to play to stay in the World Group. Sure, it means so much to our country and our team to stay in the World Group.
Having said that, you know, we've had a really good run, and we've had tough matches. We played Belgium first round. Being seeded second, it was tough to come against Clijsters and Wickmayer away. And we're facing a tough draw again against Germany playing away.
It's tough. It's a tough assignment, but we look forward to the challenge. We're going to do our all and give our best as usual to get through and to win and to stay in the world cup. That's the goal. We want to fight for the World Cup trophy next year.

Q. Thanks, Mary Joe. We'll be tuning in.

Q. Mary, just quickly, because you are obviously an excellent clay court player and we haven't had a great generation of clay courters in a while. Is there anything you can do in your time with the girls to help them be better clay court players?
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Well, I really emphasize consistency. You know, we played France last year on the clay, and it's a different mentality. I mean, you really have to be prepared to be out there all day to play high percentage tennis. It's tough when our players have been better on the hard courts the last decade and more of a power mentality of going for your shots and hitting winners.
And really on clay, I don't know how fast -- it's indoor clay, which I think is a good thing. I don't know how fast the court will be or how slow the court will be. But it is a mentality of being patient and really working the point, playing very high percentage until you get your right opportunity.
You know, you have to really drill that in early in the week and do a lot of drills related to that. So it is. It's not easy. Melanie, I think, is a little bit more used to it because I think she's played a little bit more clay than everyone else. But that's all. In five days you just have to get that base of not missing, not missing, and playing heavy balls but with a lot of margin.
TIM CURRY: Once again, there's no one in queue. We'll wait just a second or two. If not, we'll thank everybody for joining the call and Mary Joe for her time and wish her and the U.S. team good luck in Stuttgart.

Q. Mary Joe, just as you're mentioning France last year, how much, do you think, advantage does that give you guys that this was the exact same team Christina ended up subbing in that played indoors on clay away against France? How much does that help to have that experience and not necessarily the slow clay outside in Italy of a year and a half ago?
CAPTAIN FERNANDEZ: Right. It definitely helps. You know, they've played indoor clay before, and it's not the first time. So that's always an advantage to have a little bit of experience. But it's a different team, you know, that we're playing up against and different circumstances.
It's nice that we have done the surface. We've been there. But it's a new experience. So we'll just have to -- time will tell how we play and how it goes.
TIM CURRY: I believe that was our last question. We will have a transcript available that we will send out with the press release. Thanks, everyone, for joining our call.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297