Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

- Dates: 18-21 April-
- Venue: Golf El Solaimaneyah Club
- Location: Cairo, Egypt- Surface: Outdoor clay
- Ball: Dunlop Fort
- Start time: 10:00 hrs
- Ticket prices: Free entry

Format
- Round-robin: Eight nations in two pools.
- Promotion: Winner of each pool will play-off against runner-up in the other pool to determine which two teams will advance to Europe/Africa Zone Group I in 2013.
- Relegation: Nations in third place in each pool will play-off against nations in fourth place in other pool to determine which two nations will be relegated to Europe/Africa Zone Group III in 2013.

TEAM NOMINATIONS
- Denmark: Karen Barbat, Malou Ejdesgaard, Mai Grage, Cecilie Melsted, Michael Mortensen (captain)
- Finland: Piia Suomalainen, Emma Laine, Ella Leivo, Johanna Hyoty, Katrina Saarinen (captain)
- Georgia: Anna Tatishvili, Sofia Shapatava, Sofia Kvatsabaia, Lali Zerekidze (captain)
- Latvia: Diana Marcinkevica, Liga Dekmeijere, Laura Gulbe, Daiga Juska (captain)
- Montenegro: Danka Kovinic, Vladica Babic, Milica Sljukic, Danica Krstajic (playing captain)
- Norway: Ulrikke Eikeri, Emma Flood, Caroline Rohde-moe, Hedda Odegaard, Jorgen Vestli (captain)
- South Africa: Nathalie Grandin, Madrie Le Roux, Lynn Kiro, Ilze Hattingh, John Laffnie De Jager (captain)
- Turkey: Cagla Buyukakcay, Pemra Ozgen, Melis Sezer, Ipek Soylu, Ali Gorec (captain)

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

No Wozniacki and Scheepers :eek: Sevastova still injured :(
Mai Grage back to tennis.

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Denmark could actually be a team in G1 if Wozniacki tried to get girls like Jensen and Dyrberg to keep playing with Wozniacki :shrug:
No Steiro for Norway :sad:
No Senoglu for Turkey :eek:

South Africa is just a mess :tape:. They could be really good with Grandin, Scheepers, Simmonds, and Fourouclas, but only Grandin is playing...Scheepers is really dumb for not playing here as South Africa could easily be in G1 and shed be able to play the Olympics and she could also play doubles with Grandin but now she is also ruining Grandins chances at the OG...

And Georgia :sad:. Only 3 girls?? And they are another team that could be G1 but without Chakhnashvili, Kalashnikova, Mikadze, Gorgodze, etc. they are just not as good :shrug:

And Latvia without Kuzmina or Likelite :(


I expect 2 of Georgia/Turkey/Finland to qualify though ;)

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

The venue I think has change to Solaimaniah City.
I plan on going to watch the matches on most days :)

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Norway stole this GII place. :lol: Hope they play a little better than last year :unsure:

Seems like Steiro has retired again yeah. Not played since Christmas.

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Georgia looks like the strongest here, even without Chakhnashvili. Turkey has a chance too.

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Senoglu was out of tennis due to injury, but she will starting again in April. Also read that 2012 is the last season for her :(

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Georgia, Latvia, Turkey or Finland will make it :oh:

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Mai Grage quit pro tennis after her junior years but she's still playing a lot in Denmark. She won both the Danish indoors and the outdoors championships in 2011, and she was a finalist at the 2012 indoors championships a week ago (losing a close 3 set match vs Karen Barbat). She's studying at the moment, and is not practicing as much tennis as in her elite junior years, but she's still playing tournaments and club tennis almost every week. She's a very solid player, and actually a huge talent by Danish standards (for instance beating Mona Barthel in club matches in Denmark!).

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

It's pretty weird seeing Denmark in this group considering Wozniacki's 7-0 single stats at Fed Cup since 2009 (against quality opponents like Azarenka, Schnyder, Sevastova, Arvidsson).

But the Danes should have won one more singles or doubles match in 2011 to avoid relegation. There's simply not enough quality among the 2nd best players at the moment. Maybe Caro and Malou could have won a Fed Cup doubles match if they had played, but Malou was injured in 2011. Caro/Malou have won a few matches on the WTA Tour (Copenhagen), and they've bagelled Vesnina/Peng once at Charleston, which was quite an achievement although they eventually lost the match. Wozniacki isn't a very good doubles player, and Malou is not very good by any means, but they supplement each other pretty well.

Denmark won't use Caro again at this or future Fed Cups until the second best players are able to get Denmark back into group I! The Federation will wait until a new batch of players will (hopefully) be able to win some matches on their own. There's no hope that Denmark will return to group I within the next couple of years, and Fed Cup captain Michael Mortensen is even speaking of a possible further relegation in 2012! The Danish Federation has therefore selected two junior players for the Fed Cup Team 2012, Julie Noe and Martine Ditlev, both born 1996, and both ranked approx 300-400 on the ITF junior rankings. Mortensen seems to know that none of Denmark's present pro players (besides Caro) will ever become top 100 players, so he's already searching among the juniors to find someone to take over...

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

This could have been such a strong group if the players had played. BTW doesnt wozniacki have to play to qualify for olympics???
This is what it should have been:
Latvia: Sevastova (even if shes injured she sould still come), Marcinkevia, Dekmeijere and Ostapenko
Denmark: Wozniacki, Barbat, Ejdesgaard and Melsted
South Africa: Scheepers, Simmonds, Grandin and Fourouclas
Georgia: Tatishvili, Shapatava, Mikadze, Kalashnikova

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

^Wozniacki played from 2009-2011 so she doesn't have to play ;)

And why should Sevastova come if she is still injured? I think it would be better for her to heal properly ;)

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

not to play necessarily, just to observe. and btw, she is healthy enough to play dubs, she is planning on making singles comeback as early as estoril

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Please someone could tell me WHY Norway is here?
Shouldn't Norway be in Group III???

Re: Europe/Africa Zone II 2012
 

Cause 8 teams in zone II and 12 in zone III is better than 7 teams in zone II and 13 in zone III. And Norway had the highest Fed Cup ranking among these 13.