[vladekCRO]

don't forget Ana Savic

[ajmo!]

Originally Posted by croat123

it's true, but what can we do...

imagine next year--petra, donna, ajla, ana, tereza, darija--don't know who majoli should pick from that group

well martic/tomljanovic is great doubles team, i know who i would pick

[croat123]

that's right, there's savic as well
and yes, i forgot petra and ajla have played together and even won a title.

[ajmo!]

yes, and i think ajla was only 15 then. ajla's great doubles player

[croat123]

she won the AO juniors with mchale i think as well

[TimeyWimey]

summary from Fedcup.com

EILAT, ISRAEL: Poland’s hard work finally paid off in Eilat on Saturday and they earned a deserved play-off place at the end of their campaign in the Cup by BNP Paribas Europe/Africa Zone Group I event.

Sisters Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska, who carried the burden for the Polish team allowed themselves a warm smile at the end of a very tough week after they overcame up-and-coming Croatia in a thrilling climax to play on what should have been the final evening of the event.

Proceedings will conclude on Sunday morning when Great Britain and Bulgaria compete for the second play-off spot.

Croatia’s young No. 2 player, Ana Konjuh, just 15, put on a dazzling performance in her singles against Urszula Radwanska to set up a possible upset in the tie.

Konjuh, the Australian Open junior champion and a youngster, who looks to have a very bright future as a player, battled back from losing the first set 62, to win the next two 63 76(3) with some blistering groundstrokes and a powerful serve that left Urszula needing to draw on all her skills to try to keep in the running, but Konjuh had just enough to do the business and close out the match in a long tie break.

Elder sister Agnieszka pulled the tie level when she secured victory 63 62 over Croatian No. 1 Donna Vekic with her usual assured and competent play, running the hard-hitting Croat around the court until she made the error.

The two Polish sisters then teamed up to complete victory in the doubles with Urszula showing excellent tactical awareness and good work at the net, with a 62 64 win over Konjuh and Darija Jurak despite the Croats leading in both sets following early breaks.

“We were really playing well all week and I’m very excited to finally go up and we will try to stay up longer than we did last time,” Agnieszka said.

Captain Tomasz Wiktorowszki said the path to qualification was very tough but he credited both sisters for their hard work throughout.

“I think we had the strongest group… we had very difficult matches but Aga did an amazing job and she was our leader but I’m also very proud of Ula because she was a little shaky during the week but she played very well when it counted today,” Wiktorowszki said.

[networthy]

Originally Posted by TimeyWimey

summary from Fedcup.com

The two Polish sisters then teamed up to complete victory in the doubles with Urszula showing excellent tactical awareness and good work at the net, with a 62 64 win over Konjuh and Darija Jurak despite the Croats leading in both sets following early breaks.

[ma re]

Still feeling really sad for the girls who ended up with nothing after all that hard work. Unfortunately I wasn't able to follow the whole match yesterday and was hoping it'll be a longer one so that I'll at least catch the last few games, but once I got back to livescores it was already over. What a bummer.

I agree that Petra's absence was felt in doubles, but we do have to remember that Darija entered the team only AFTER Petra pulled out and I'm not sure Petra + Ana/Donna/Tereza would've been capable of anything better than what we ended up with. On the bright side, now we have a problem of too many good players for a team. Maybe if we would sign up another team, like Croatia 1 and Croatia 2...

So that's it for FC this year. I definately think we'll make it next time, with even more mature and experienced Ana and Donna, not to mention if we get a healthy Petra along with Darija, or maybe Ajla or Ana S. if something causes one of the youngsters to pull out... As for this year, at least we'll get a nice bump up in the Fed Cup rankings, cause we're definately way better than #40 (or whatever our ranking is currently).

Really proud of the girls and thrilled by the fact that Ana and Donna got such an awesome learning experience this week. I'm sure they'll find it invaluable.

[Hele.]

Originally Posted by ma re

Still feeling really sad for the girls who ended up with nothing after all that hard work. Unfortunately I wasn't able to follow the whole match yesterday and was hoping it'll be a longer one so that I'll at least catch the last few games, but once I got back to livescores it was already over. What a bummer.

Don't look on it that it was for nothing... Well, in the end we didn't get chance for play offs but who knows could we win there against some stronger team (of course, it would be nice to have a chance but still). After all, Donna and Ana earned precious senior experience that will help in their progress for sure. If nothing, it was worth because of it. But after all, they give us a hope that our women team really have bright future, if everything goes by plan. And about this "problem" of too good players, I think it is "cute care", but mostly I have believe in Donna and Ana. With great players like Petra and Ajla, our team will be just stronger!

[chingching]

Next year should be Donna, Ana, Ajla and Petra
Darija is good at Doubles but not good enough to remove these girls
I actually think that Ana is better than Donna, at least from this performance

[ma re]

Current Fed cup rankings show...

- Belarus at #17
- Poland at #23
- Austria at #25
- Croatia at #40
- Georgia at #42

I think we can conclude this is about to change drastically.

(sure, Georgia didn't have Tatishvili, Austria didn't have Paszek, Belarus didn't have Azarenka or Govortsova, but we also didn't have Petra and still almost won the play-off)

[networthy]

Originally Posted by networthy

...and here are Croatia's final positions in the E/A Zone Group I, beginning in 2009 (after it was relegated from World Group II):

2009: Tied for 5th (out of 15 countries)
2010: Tied for 11th (out of 16 countries)
2011: Tied for 7th (out of 15 countries)
2012: Tied for 9th (out of 15 countries)

Croatia finished tied for 3rd
http://www.fedcup.com/en/results/gro...rica/2013.aspx

[mic12]

Croatia also moved up in fedcup rankings by 11 spots and is now ranked 29th! Great job girls!

[croat123]

good--hopefully enough to be seeded next year

[ma re]

Originally Posted by mic12

Croatia also moved up in fedcup rankings by 11 spots and is now ranked 29th! Great job girls!

That's more like it