Colin Fleming is the new Great Britain's Fed Cup coach
The 34-year-old Colin Fleming, a former top-20 doubles player and the winner of eight ATP titles from 19 finals, had retired in 2017 to become the National Coach for Tennis Scotland. The Linlithgow native had a chance to play with Andy Murray five times, reaching the final in Montreal five years ago together, and he played for the British Davis Cup squad for six years, winning 10 out of 12 matches overall! Now, Fleming will embrace a new role and become Great Britain's Fed Cup coach, stepping in instead of Nick Cavaday who will be in charge of the National Academy programme at Loughborough University.
On the other hand, Iain Bates has been confirmed as the new head of women's tennis, replacing Jeremy Bates who will now focus on Katie Boulter who cracked the top-100 in 2018. The British Fed Cup team will have a chance to play in front of home fans in Bath between February 6-9, competing on the British soil for the first time since 1993 and hosting Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, Georgia, Slovenia in Group I round robin action. Great Britain has been playing in Fed Cup Group I since 2005, losing in the World Group 2 Play-off four times since 2012 and losing all those matches to Sweden, Argentina, Romania and Japan.
In 2018, Great Britain had a great run in Estonia back in February, with Heather Watson and Johanna Konta dominating over Portugal, Estonia and Hungary, setting up the World Group 2 Play-off clash against Japan in April. Watson and Konta gave their best to topple the host team and finally reach the higher level of competition but it wasn't to be for them, leading 2-1 before dropping the last two rubbers to stay empty-handed.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2SbMMjM
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