Lindsay Davenport: Coco Gauff is the Future of the Fed Cup

Former World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport says the United States have a good draw in the upcoming Fed Cup Finals in Budapest, according to the Tennis Tour Talk website.

The U.S. are paired with Spain and Slovakia in Group C and Davenport thinks that the U.S. should be able to beat both of those teams. While speaking on the Tennis Channel Live broadcast earlier this week, Davenport commented, “I think if you’re from the USTA, you couldn’t have picked a better group for the U.S. to fall in. They’ll play against Spain and Slovakia. Those are two very winnable ties for Team USA. There’s a lot of great players and teams. I really like where the U.S. is in that draw.”

Davenport is also happy with the number of options that are available to captain Kathy Riinaldi to choose from for the Fed Cup team in April and hopes that Serena Williams will also be part of the squad that travels to Budapest. “It will be interesting to hear what Serena’s plans are. She looked very invested over the weekend in Washington. That was one of the great moments, especially when the tie was over. Obviously, she was noticeably disappointed when she lost her match, but she was out there cheering in the fifth rubber. She was on court. That looked like a really cohesive unit that played in Washington. As a player, you also have to look long term. Do you want to be in Europe on the 20th of April when you have the French Open five or six weeks away and you’re still looking ahead to Wimbledon? I think now that they’ve qualified, Team USA, they all have to look at their schedule and see if it makes sense for them as well. You go down the rankings and you have Kenin and Serena and you’ve got Madison, you’ve got Sloane and Alison Riske. There are so many options for Captain Rinaldi. That’s what you love when you’re captaining a nation. You don’t want to have just one or two players, you want to have a bunch to be able chose from. Coco Gauff is obviously the future of Fed Cup. It was great to see her and for her to get experience in Washington. She didn’t make it on to the match court, but she’ll have many, many chances in the future. Who knows? Maybe, she ends up playing in Budapest. We’ll see.”

The final team nominations have to be completed by March 17th by the respective countries.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/38yhHii