Perth (Australia) (AFP)
The final between Australia and France in Perth, Saturday and Sunday, is the last one before a reform of the Fed Cup formula from 2020, concentrated around a final phase of a week, like this one. Davis Cup has been experiencing since this year.
Ladies' side, the first meeting will be held from 14 to 19 April in Budapest, with twelve teams. Men's side, it will be held from 18 to 24 November in Madrid, with eighteen teams.
Four nations are already guaranteed to participate in the Fed Cup new look: France and Australia, in their 2019 finalist status, Hungary, host country, and the Czech Republic, beneficiary of a invitation.
The other eight qualified teams will be known after a first round, on the classic model of home / away games, with four singles and a double (with tie-break) scheduled for February 7 and 8 next.
In the Hungarian capital, the twelve countries represented will form four groups of three. The winner of each pool will advance to the semi-finals. Each game will be played in two singles and one doubles.
Instead of three weekends of competition distributed throughout the year (February, April and November), on his land or those of his opponent, there will be more than one or two deadlines per year.
The women's team competition had adopted the principle of home / away duels in 1995, when it had shortened its Federation Cup name to Fed Cup. Since its creation in 1963 and until then, it was disputed over a week, already, and moved from year to year.
Budapest must host the new finals of the Fed Cup until 2022.
The eight meetings of the first round 2020:
United States - Latvia
Netherlands - Belarus
Romania - Russia
Brazil - Germany
Spain - Japan
Switzerland - Canada
Belgium - Kazakhstan
Slovakia - Great Britain
© 2019 AFP