Maybe next year, when U.S. Federation Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez travels to Belgium to face the mighty combination of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, she won't have to trot out two teenagers and a sick mid-career player to try to topple two experienced, extremely capable players
But that wasn't the case this weekend in San Diego, when Italy, behind its two stellar performers in Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone, won the Fed Cup title on Sunday with a decisive 3-1 victory over the U.S.
After U.S. rookie CoCo Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands were dismissed by French Open champion Schiavone and former top-10 player Pennetta on Saturday, Melanie Oudin gave the U.S. hope early Sunday, replacing the ill Mattek-Sands and stunning Schiavone 6-3, 6-1.
But just minutes after Oudin finished her fast-talking revival of a press conference where she declared herself to be “back” after a sub-par year, Pennetta ran circles around Vandeweghe, 6-1, 6-2, to clinch the Cup.
Fernandez took a necessary risk in not only naming Vandeweghe, the powerful yet erratic daughter of a former Olympic swimmer and niece and granddaughter to two former NBA stars (uncle Kiki and grandfather Ernie), to the squad, but in starting her over Oudin, the quick-footed Georgian who had lost most of her confidence during a spring and summer when she fell under the weight of the expectations.
For her part, the tall and athletic Vandeweghe began to make noise during the summer, upsetting Wimbledon and U.S. Open finalist Vera Zvonareva during the summer and scoring a series of impressive wins during the fall. Fernandez was hoping that No. 114-ranked Vandeweghe would have a major breakout in the Fed Cup final in front of her hometown fans in San Diego, but it wasn't to be, as she reverted to her old erratic self, rarely dominating with her serve and forehand, and spraying balls all over the court.
Vandeweghe finished with a remarkable 46 unforced errors against Pennetta and only managed to hit 14 winners. Pennetta more than met the challenge on her forehand side and got better depth and angle on her shots. She made Vandeweghe look like a wild, inexperienced player of 18 years, finishing the contest with 17 winners and only 10 unforced errors while winning her eighth straight Fed Cup match dating back to last year's final, when Italy also shut down the U.S.
Pennetta, who became the first Italian woman to crack the top 10 last year, was solid and composed, while ranked Vandeweghe broke down crying in her post-match press conference, unsure of why she couldn't find a way into the match
“I'm very disappointed in myself and the way that it turned out,” she said. "But I tried my best out there, fought as hard as I could ... It's definitely emotional right now losing for my country and for my teammates, people that kind of counted on me to pull out a win.”
Fernandez was a bit unlucky over the weekend, as Mattek-Sands, who had played so well in the U.S. victory over Russia in the semifinals, came down with a virus and, after losing a tough first-set tiebreaker to Pennetta on Saturday, began to cramp in the second set and couldn't get any push off on her serve in a 7-6, 6-2 loss.
That left Fernandez with a tough choice on Sunday morning: whether to play a less-than-100-percent Mattek-Sands against Schiavone and hope that she could somehow gut out a victory. That would allow Fernandez to sub Oudin in for Vandeweghe, as the captain likes how Oudin can run sideline-to-sideline with Pennetta and thought she might be able to pull off an upset. That perfect scenario would take it to doubles, giving the U.S. the excellent pairing of Liezel Huber and Mattek-Sands — and a shot at a miracle comeback.
But Mattek-Sands' illness forced Fernandez's hand, despite the fact that Mattek-Sands was willing to go on court anyway. Fernandez played her best card with the fiery Oudin, but then was forced to call on Vandeweghe again, who hasn't played enough hands to develop a proper poker face — and she was immediately kicked off the big table.
All credit should be given to Italy for their third Fed Cup title in the past five years. Captain Corrado Barazzutti has a calm hand, Schiavone is almost always inspired and Pennetta simply locks in. While it would have been a far greater challenge for Italy to defeat a U.S. team with multiple Grand Slam champions Venus and Serena Williams, Italy has won seven straight Fed Cup ties over fine teams such as the Ukraine (the Bondarenko sisters), France (Amelie Mauresmo), Russia (Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Nadia Petrova) and the Czech Republic (Lucie Safarova).
“Of course, if Serena and Venus want to play, the chance to win, it's less,” Pennetta said. "It's normal to say something like that. They are really good players. They are really strong. But we fight a lot to be here, to have this trophy. Before we played the U.S., we played another two important teams. All the best players on the other teams were there. It does not make any difference if they play or not play. Still we won this unbelievable Fed Cup, and nobody can say nothing about that.”
Fernandez is in a bit of a quandary next year. She likes her young group of players being backed up by the veteran Huber in doubles, and believes that there is a strong group of teens coming — going as far to say that “I'm hoping to have at least 10 of these new players in the top 100 next year and possibly some more in the top 50. We got to get to that next level of top 50 players. All the Italians were in the top 50. That's our next push.”
But then there are the Williams sisters, who at the ages of 29 and 30, are still the best players the U.S. has. Neither Serena nor Venus have played in the Fed Cup in the last three years, but if they want to play the 2012 Olympics — both have said they badly do — they have to make themselves available to play the Fed Cup in 2011 and 2012. That means that they must either play the Belgium tie during Super Bowl week in February or possibly a relegation tie later during the year at an undetermined location, or they will be disqualified from the Olympics.
So what is Fernandez to do, especially when she says that players such as Oudin, Vandeweghe and Mattek-Sands are the future, and that the future is already here? Does she stay with the youth movement that has done as well as it can in reaching two finals, or does she ask the sisters to play again and possibly disrupt the camaraderie?
It sounds like she's of two minds, but there's pressure on her to guide a team to victory again as the U.S. hasn't won a crown in a decade, its longest-ever losing streak.
Whatever she decides next year, one thing is clear: She needs either her young players to develop quickly or the veterans to return. She needs players as resourceful as Pennetta and Schiavone.
“Our goal is still to win,” Fernandez said. “So to win you need your best players. (The Williams sisters are) our best players. I actually think they would do a lot of good for the younger generation to be around them. In our ideal setup, you have them and the young ones together. Hopefully it's an inspiration. They see their work ethic, what it takes to get to that level. But in my book, I'm always going to ask the best players to play. They're the best out there. Having said that, we've had a fantastic two years without them.”
