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FED CUP INTERVIEWS- USA vs. BELGIUMJuly 14, 2006Carl MaesOSTEND, BELGIUM Q. Look ahead to this semifinal tie between Belgium and the United States of the Fed Cup. It's going to be a tough weekend. CAPTAIN MAES: Absolutely. I think it's going to be a 50/50 scenario, which is in line with the rankings, if you look at them. It's not a very even tie. There's quite some discrepancy between the best player and the weakest player on the draw sheet. I think a 2-All scenario with maybe the doubles as a decider is a likely scenario. Q. In Fed Cup, like in Davis Cup, what happens as far as rankings are concerned just goes right out the window. It is a different scenario, isn't it? To get a crowd involved for one nation, it's pretty exciting. CAPTAIN MAES: Oh, no, absolutely. That's why I think if I have to give one nation the advantage, I would like to give it to us with hopefully a home crowd that will be behind Kim and Kirsten in the singles matches. Kirsten has had, on top of that, a couple of good months. She qualified twice in a row for a Grand Slam. So I think she's up for the battle. I think mentally she has proven that she can win those difficult matches. It will be very interesting to see. We hope to have the support from the home crowd. Q. In the weeks leading up to this tie, most people were saying it's a foregone conclusion with Belgium winning because of Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters on this side. With Justine pulling out, I know you've said it's obviously disappointing, how has that affected the team? CAPTAIN MAES: Well, it has affected the team as such because we delayed the decision or we delayed the response from Justine a little bit, and that has affected the preparation a little bit maybe because we were all hoping to maybe still pull her in at the later stage this week, which hasn't happened. That's a very unfortunate thing. But nevertheless, I think the players from Monday were aware that this was a likely scenario, and we've been working on the worst-case scenario. That was without Justine, unfortunately. Q. I guess that does even things up. It makes it a little bit tougher for the home side. CAPTAIN MAES: Oh, absolutely. I think from being a done deal almost, it's now a very even tie, which let's hope it's a more exciting tie than it maybe would have been before, but still with the same outcome. That's quite important (laughter). Q. Carl, let's look at the two singles matches on day one. First up with Jill Craybas playing Kirsten Flipkens. What are your thoughts on that one? CAPTAIN MAES: I think it could be the key match in the tie. I'm not too unhappy that it happens in the first match when there's not more or less at stake because of a previous score that was obtained. One could argue that it's maybe better for Kirsten to play second match if Kim would have won the first match. But I think starting with a clean sheet, knowing when you're going to start, I think it's a better situation for Kirsten to play. I think she's got some weapons to annoy Jill, who is a very good player on hard court. But we've got a very slow hard court with a high bounce. I think that will allow Kirsten to actually use all the weapons and skills she's got to annoy Jill as much as possible. Q. I know Kim Clijsters hasn't played Jamea Jackson before. Kim said she's going to be asking Kirsten for some advice because Kirsten played Jamea at Wimbledon. CAPTAIN MAES: We're going to be looking at Kirsten's match against Jamea later today and we're going to analyze it, so we'll get more information. I've seen the match myself. This is clearly not going to be an easy match for Kim, even if the rankings might show at this moment. I'm very impressed with Jamea Jackson so far. I think she's got a lot to go for her in women's tennis in the next coming years. Q. I'm going to put you on the line. Give us a prediction? CAPTAIN MAES: 4-1 Belgium. That's a tough one. That's a tough one (laughter). I'll see you after the tie.
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