Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin, Jessica Pegula, Jennifer Brady to Represent U.S. in 2019 Fed Cup World Group Playoff vs. Switzerland
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., April 10, 2019 – The USTA and United States Fed Cup Captain Kathy Rinaldi today announced that No. 8 Sloane Stephens, No. 14 Madison Keys, No. 36 Sofia Kenin, No. 74 Jessica Pegula and No. 78 Jennifer Brady will represent the U.S. in its Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Playoff tie vs. Switzerland April 20-21 in San Antonio.
World No. 81 Viktorija Golubic, No. 112 Timea Bacsinzsky, No. 144 Conny Perrin and No. 183 Ylena In-Albon will represent Switzerland for Captain Heinz Guenthardt in the best-of-five match series, which will be played on a hard court inside Freeman Coliseum.
Play will begin at 2:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. ET) on Saturday and 2 p.m. (3 p.m. ET) on Sunday. Saturday’s two singles matches will pit each country’s No. 1 player against the other’s No. 2. Sunday will feature the two reverse singles matches – No. 1 vs. No. 1; No. 2 vs. No. 2 – followed by a possible fifth-and-decisive doubles match. A revised schedule for Sunday may take place if a team clinches in the third or fourth match. The matchups and order of play for the weekend’s matches will be determined at the official draw ceremony, which will be held at 11 a.m. local time on Friday, April 19, at the Alamo.
Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com. Tennis Channel will present live daily coverage nationally in the U.S.
The U.S. is 8-0 in Fed Cup competition vs. the Swiss, though the two countries last played in 1993. The winner of this matchup returns to the top-level World Group to compete for the Fed Cup title in 2020, while the loser will be relegated to World Group II next year.
Stephens, 26, was the 2017 US Open champion and reached her second Grand Slam final at the 2018 French Open. She made her Top 5 debut last year and was ranked as high as No. 3 in the world in July. Stephens last played Fed Cup in the 2018 Semifinals, where she won two singles matches vs. France to help the U.S. clinch its second consecutive Fed Cup Final appearance.
Keys, 24, will be appearing in her sixth U.S. Fed Cup tie on the heels of winning her fourth career WTA title last week, at the clay-court Volvo Car Open in Charleston, S.C. Keys sent the U.S. to the Fed Cup Final last year with a tie-clinching singles win in the Semifinals vs. France. A 2017 US Open finalist and career-high world No. 7, Keys reached the semifinals at both the US Open and French Open and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2018.
Kenin, 20, is the third-youngest player in the Top 40 and began the 2019 season by winning her first WTA doubles and singles titles in consecutive weeks, in Brisbane and Hobart, respectively. Kenin made her Fed Cup debut in the 2018 Final in Prague as a 19-year old, only the third U.S. teen to make their debut in a Fed Cup Final, and spent 6 ½ hours on court over two singles matches, including a 3 hour, 45-minute thriller vs. Katerina Siniakova in the deciding singles match.
Pegula, 25, is currently ranked a career-high No. 74 in the world and is coming off a third-round run at Charleston in which she defeated world No. 12 Anastasija Sevastova. Pegula reached her first WTA singles final last September in Quebec City. This is her first Fed Cup nomination.
Brady, who turns 24 on Friday, is ranked No. 78 in singles and No. 49 in doubles. She reached the Australian Open doubles semifinals this year and has recorded four singles victories over opponents ranked in the Top 25 in 2019. While this this Brady’s first official team nomination, she served as a hitting partner for the title-winning team in the 2017 Final in Minsk, Belarus.
The USTA has partnered with Thomas J. Henry Attorneys, Frost Insurance, Valero, H.E.B. and Visit San Antonio to bring Fed Cup to San Antonio.
This marks the first time Fed Cup has come to Texas, though the state has a notable history with Davis Cup, its male equivalent. Most recently, nearly 50,000 fans came out over three days to cheer the U.S. Davis Cup Team vs. Spain in the 2011 Quarterfinals held at the University of Texas in Austin. Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth have all hosted Davis Cup ties in the past, with the U.S. winning the Davis Cup title in 1992 at Fort Worth’s Tarrant County Center.
Fed Cup is the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with approximately 100 nations taking part each year. The U.S. holds an overall 151-38 record in Fed Cup competition with a 41-7 record in home ties. For more information, including access to player and historical Fed Cup records, please go to www.usta.com/fedcup or www.fedcup.com.
Keep up with Team USA using hashtag #TeamUSATennis on Facebook (@USTA), on Twitter (@USTA), and on Instagram (@USTA). Wilson is the official ball of the U.S. Fed Cup team. Deloitte is the official team sponsor of the U.S. Fed Cup Team.
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The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 655,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking seven summer WTA and ATP World Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 90 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network.For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
For more information, contact:
Pat Mitsch, USTA Corporate Communications, (914) 697-2291, Mitsch@usta.com