WHITE PLAINS, January 24, 2018 (Press Release)
The USTA and United States Fed Cup Captain Kathy Rinaldi announced that former world No. 1 and 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, fellow former world No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, and 2017 US Open and Australian Open semifinalist and world No. 9 CoCo Vandeweghe will represent the U.S. in the 2018 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group First Round against the Netherlands.
The best-of-five match series will be played at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C., Feb. 10-11, on an indoor hard court. This is the first time that Asheville is hosting Fed Cup. The U.S. team comes to the city after winning its record 18th Fed Cup title in November against Belarus, 3-2, in Minsk. This was the U.S.’s first Fed Cup title since 2000.
Captain Rinaldi will announce the final member of the four-player roster next week. The Netherlands team will also be announced next week.
Play begins on both Saturday, Feb. 10, and Sunday, Feb. 11, at 12:30 p.m. ET. On Saturday, two singles matches will take place. On Sunday, play will continue with two reverse singles matches and the doubles match. A revised schedule for Sunday may take place if a team clinches in the third or fourth match. Tennis Channel will present live daily coverage.
Limited tickets are still available and may be purchased by visiting www.usta.com/fedcup or by calling 888-334-USTA (8782). Both single-day and two-day ticket packages are available. Two-day ticket packages for both Saturday and Sunday range from $50 to $190 ($25 to $95 per day), representing the greatest initial ticket value. Single-day tickets for Saturday or Sunday play are available from $30 to $100 per day.
While tickets are going fast, numerous community events will take place over Fed Cup week to celebrate the team coming to Asheville, which will be announced at a later date.
Local tie sponsors for Fed Cup in Asheville include Ingles, Skyland Automotive, Omni Grove Park, Charter Spectrum, New Belgium Brewing, Citizen, and ExploreAshevile.com.
The U.S. Fed Cup team has played in North Carolina on three prior occasions, holding a 2-1 record in the state. The U.S. competed last in North Carolina in 2002, in Charlotte at the Olde Providence Racquet Club. The team also played in Raleigh in 1999 at the Raleigh Racquet Club, as well as in Wilmington in 1995 at Trask Coliseum.
The U.S. holds a 6-2 head-to-head record over the Netherlands in Fed Cup play. The U.S. last faced the Netherlands in the 1998 World Group First Round in Kiawah Island, S.C., sweeping the tie, 5-0. The Americans’ only losses to the Dutch came in 1968 and 1997.
World No. 5 Venus Williams, 37, continues to be at the top of her game, reaching the final of Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2017 with a semifinal showing at the US Open. Last year, Williams had the 13th Top 10 season of her career and finished 2017 in the Top 5 for the first time since 2010. In 2013, Williams re-entered the Top 20 for the first time since revealing that she had been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder. Williams is a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and has won 49 career WTA singles titles. She has been ranked No. 1 in both singles and doubles. Williams holds a 23-4 overall record in Fed Cup competition, including a 19-2 record in singles, and was a member of the title-winning team in 1999. She is competing in her first Fed Cup tie since February 2016. InOlympic play, Williams has won three gold medals in doubles (with Serena) in 2000, 2008 and 2012, and she captured the singles gold medal in 2000. Follow @venuswilliams on Instagram and @Venuseswilliams on Twitter.
Vandeweghe, 26, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., is ranked a career-high No. 9 in the world. Vandeweghe made Fed Cup history last year by going 8-0 in singles and doubles play to lead the U.S. team to its 18th Fed Cup championship. With six singles wins in 2017, Vandeweghe became the first American ever, since the World Group format was instituted in 1995, to win all six Fed Cup singles matches in one year. She was also the first player to win eight rubbers (six singles, two doubles) in a Fed Cup year since 1995 and only the third player in Fed Cup history to win three rubbers in a Fed Cup Final (two singles and one doubles). Vandeweghe has played in seven Fed Cup ties, holding a 7-3 singles record and a 5-0 doubles record. She reached the semifinals of both the 2017 US Open and Australian Open—her career-best Grand Slam results—and broke into the Top 10 for the first time in November. Vandeweghe also advanced to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2015. She holds two WTA singles titles, both won in the Netherlands, in 2014 and 2016, as well as two doubles titles (Indian Wells in 2016 with Mattek-Sands, Stanford in 2017 with Abigail Spears). She competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio in women’s doubles and advanced to the doubles semifinals at the 2015 and 2016 US Open. As a junior player, Vandeweghe won the 2008 US Open girls’ singles title. Her mother, Tauna, was a member of the U.S. national team in both swimming and volleyball, and her uncle is former NBA star Kiki Vandeweghe. Follow @cocovandey on Instagram and @CoCoVandey on Twitter.
World No. 22 Serena Williams, 36, is competing in her first event since the 2017 Australian Open and since giving birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia in September. Williams won her 23rd Grand Slam title at her last Australian Open while pregnant and now holds the record for the most Grand Slam singles titles in the Open Era. Williams has won 72 WTA singles titles and has finished a season ranked No. 1 five times in her career, the last coming in 2015. She has also been ranked No. 1 in doubles in her career, holding 23 doubles titles with Venus, including 14 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles. In 2012, Williams captured the Olympic gold medal in singles and women’s doubles with Venus in London. With the Olympic singles win, Williams joined Steffi Graf as the only women to complete the career Golden Slam—the Olympics and the four Grand Slam events—and she is the only person to accomplish the feat in both singles and doubles. Williams holds a 13-0 singles record and 3-1 doubles record in Fed Cup competition, last playing in the 2015 Fed Cup World Group II First Round against Argentina in Buenos Aires. She also helped the U.S. capture the 1999 Fed Cup title. Follow@serenawilliams on Instagram and @serenawilliams on Twitter.
