Federation Cup

Despite Lindsay Davenport's surprising loss in the first rubber of the Federation Cup tie with Germany last weekend, the United States came back to defeat Germany 4-1.

It was Davenport's first loss in Federation Cup play since 1994. But she came back to win her rain-delayed Monday match, and Ashley Hackleroad surprised everyone by winning her first two Federation Cup matches in straight sets.

Here are the results:

Rubber 1
Sabine Lisicki (Germany) defeated Lindsay Davenport (United States) 6-1, 7-5

Rubber 2
Ashley Harkleroad (United States) defeated Tatjana Malek (Germany) 6-1, 6-3

Rubber 3
Lindsay Davenport (United States) defeated Julia Goerges (Germany) 6-1, 6-2

Rubber 4
Ashley Harkleroad (United States) defeated Sabine Lisicki (Germany) 6-4, 7-5

Rubber 5
Lisa Raymond / Lindsay Davenport (United States) defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld / Tatjana Malek (Germany) 6-2, 6-0

Final Score: United States 4, Germany 1

In April the US Federation Cup team goes to Moscow to play Russia, a much tougher task. That Russian team could field great players like Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova, and Anna Chakvetadze, to name a few. The tie will be played on a slow clay court, which European players are much more used to than Americans are.

Zina Garrison, the captain of the American team is asking Venus and Serena Williams to play this tie for the United States, in hopes of fielding the best possible team for the event.

Russia has captured the Federation Cup three of the last four years, but the United States is the overall winningest nation (winning the cup 17 times) and holds an overall record of 4-2 against Russia.

Technorati Tags: tennis