Fed Cup Final: ITA vs RUS

The 2013 Fed Cup final will be contested this weekend on the island of Sardinia, and it looks like a complete dud, thanks to the Russians unwillingness to put kind of a competitive team together against the Italian stalwarts.  About the only thing worth paying attention to in the tie will be look at some of the young Russian players and see if they can make any of kind of a match (or set) of their contests.  The WTA's second tier tournament of champions in Sofia is partly to blame for this fiasco, but Vinci chose to skip the event unlike her Russian counterparts Kirilenko, Vesnina, and Pavlyuchenkova, who have definitely played plenty of Fed Cup over the past couple years.  But Russia is still without Kuznetsova, Makarova, and a host of other top 100 talent, so I wonder if once the top few players were out of the fix, Russia elected to go with a young squad.

But enough complaining about no Russians, and on to the tie itself.  Errani and Vinci are the leaders of the home Italian squad, and Vinci is coming another solid campaign but Errani has slumped after being on fire at the beginning of the year.  They are backed by Pennetta and Knapp, who gets the call in place of Schiavone.  This would be a powerful lineup really against any team the Russians could have put forward, or any country for that matter.  Russia counters with two players in their mid-20s and two teenagers.  Their "no. 1" is Panova and she is joined by Kleybanova, who is only recently back on tour (reaching the quarters in Moscow) after battling cancer.  Promising youngsters Khromacheva and Gasparyan complete the Russian side.  Who the Russian captain Tarpischev will throw out in any and all matches is a total guess, but I would lean toward Kleybanova and Khromacheva getting the nod.

I think the Russians will put up a bit of a fight, and maybe even surprise Errani (look what the US did in February), but ultimately this should be yet another coronation for the Italian Fed Cup team.

ITA 3 RUS 0