The storyline leading up to this weekend’s first round of Fed Cup has been a grimly familiar one: Where are the players? Russia, a traditional powerhouse, will travel to Australia with what can charitably be described as its D team—the country’s 11 best women won’t make the trip, and one of their singles starters, Veronika Kudermetova, has a singles ranking of 650. The U.S. will play without its two best, Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens; the only positive for the States is that the country’s opponent, Italy, will be without its three best, Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci, and Flavia Pennetta. The Czech Republic, usually a reliable Fed Cup performer, will also be without its top two, Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova.
In a sad story this week in USA Today, Pam Shriver calls the competition a “dinosaur” because of its multi-weekend, multi-venue format, which is hard to follow for fans and hard to schedule for players. This particular weekend is especially difficult, schedule-wise, because two lucrative WTA events in Doha and Dubai follow right on its heels. A few years ago, the Davis Cup bumped its ties up a week, so they now follow hard on the heels of the majors. The move has mostly been a success, and it might have helped Fed Cup this time, but it’s hard to say it would be a long-term solution for the women.
For now, we’ll follow those who have decided to participate. Team tennis events can still be exciting regardless of who's playing, and it goes without saying the ties will mean a lot to those involved—plus, the Germans and the Slovaks are bringing their best to Bratislava. Here are capsule previews of that tie and the three others from the World Group's opening round. You can see all of the details here.