France – Italy in dams!

The supporters of the French team of Billie Jean King Cup (ex-Fed Cup) can be delighted, they will have the opportunity to support their team next April, as in the “good times”. Julien Benneteau’s daughters will indeed host Italy in the play-offs of the 2022 edition, the winner of which will qualify for the final phase, which will take place on November 10 and 11 in a city to be determined. The draw was made in Prague on Saturday, two hours before the kick-off of the 2021 final, which will pit Switzerland against Russia at the O2 Arena, two countries already qualified for the next phase. final. France, winner of the trophy in 2019, was seeded and therefore inherited a non-seeded team for these play-offs, in this case Italy, which it had beaten 4-1 in Marseille in the quarterfinals. final in 2016 during their last confrontation. The meeting will take place on April 15 and 16.

Two teams losing momentum

Difficult to find a favorite for this jump-off, because if the two teams shone a few years ago in women’s tennis, this is no longer really the case. To date, the four best French women are ranked beyond 50th place in the world: Alizé Cornet 59th, Caroline Garcia 75th, Clara Burel 77th and Kristina Mladenovic 93rd. On the Italian side, where the Schiavone-Pennetta-Vinci generation is now retired, the record is not much better, since Camila Giorgi occupies the 36th place in the world, Jasmine Paolini the 51st, Martina Trevisan the 114th and Sara Errani the 118th. And if France can count on a Kristina Mladenovic 21st in the world in doubles (but she has played little this year), Italy does not have any Top 100 player in this discipline. France, carried by its public, could therefore have an advantage, but the meeting will only take place in five months, and a lot of things can happen by then …

The other meetings:
Australia – Slovakia
United States – Ukraine
Czech Republic – Great Britain
Belarus – Belgium
Germany – Kazakhstan
Canada – Latvia
Spain – Netherlands
Romania – Poland