The USTA has named Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Melanie Oudin, Liezel Huber and newcomer Christina McHale to its Fed Cup team to face Germany away on indoor clay April 16-17. As reported by TENNIS.com yesterday, Venus Williams will travel with the team but is not expected to play, as she is still rehabilitating her hip injury.
While Mattek-Sands is almost certain to be named in singles, captain Mary Joe Fernandez is unsure whom she will pick for the second singles spot between the slumping Oudin and McHale, who has been playing well as of late.
Despite her flagging fortunes on tour, No. 75 Oudin has performed very well in Fed Cup before, upsetting top Italian Francesca Schiavone in the Fed Cup final last year. However, Oudin has a 5-10 record this year, although she did beat one of the Germany’s two singles players, Julia Georges, last week in Miami.
No. 97 McHale won two rounds at Indian Wells, including upsetting two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. At a clay-court Challenger in Alabama last week, McHale reached the quarterfinals, while Oudin fell in the first round. Both are contesting Charleston on green clay this week. McHale won her-first round match over Heather Watson, while Oudin fell to Tamira Paszek 6-1, 7-5 on Tuesday.
Venus is traveling with in order to maintain her eligibility for the 2012 Olympics. Fernandez said that before suffering a pulmonary embolism in February, Serena Williams was also planning on making the trip but cannot fly to Germany as she is seeing doctors daily.—Matthew Cronin