New Australian Fed Cup captain Alicia Molik believes her team has a chance to upset defending champions Czech Republic in Ostrava. In singles, Petra Kvitova (CZE) will take on Jarmila Gajdosova (AUS) in the first match, then Lucie Safarova (CZE) will play Samantha Stosur (AUS). Molik’s team also includes 16-year-old Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua, who reached the Australian Open doubles final.
“I genuinely believe we have the team to win this weekend,” Molik told FedCup.com. “We come in as a really exciting team. We have Ash [Barty] at the age of 16 who’s one of our strongest doubles players – she has added a lot of youthfulness to our team, who are very experienced both at Fed Cup and international level. And we play a great game and exciting brand of tennis, so I truly believe our players can beat the Czechs. Yes they’ve been the dominant nation but recent results count for a lot, and over the last couple of months we’ve been matching them, so anything can happen.”