France's No. 2, Tatiana Golovin, will be the leader of the French team in the Fed Cup, since France's highest ranked player, Amelie Mauresmo, is still recovering from her appendectomy. A lot of pressure is put on Golovin, who has recently won her first WTA title, since she is expected to win three points playing singles and doubles this weekend. However, 19-year-old Golovin has already shown her mental strength in the Fed Cup – in 2004 by beating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final, and in 2006 in Cagnes-sur-Mer versus the Czech Republic. (source: Fed Cup)

It's not easy to understand the structure of the Fed Cup. The following text is my attempt to clarify how the Fed Cup groups are formed. I tried to make my explanation as simple as possible by dividing it into short paragraphs.

Out of 89 nations that entered the 2006 Fed Cup, 16 qualified for the prestigious World Group and World Group II (eight countries are in each of these two groups).

• About World Group

The four teams that win their World Group first round tie will stay in the World Group the next year.

The four teams that lose in the first round play the World Group I Play-Offs against the four nations that won in World Group II.

The four countries that win World Group I Play-Offs will be in the World Group the following year; the four countries that lose will be in World Group II.

• About World Group II
  

As I have already explained, the four teams that win their World Group II ties will compete in the World Group I Play-Offs, and those that win these Play-Offs will compete in the World Group I the following year.

The four nations that lose their World Group II ties will face winning nations from Group I Zonal competitions, in the World Group II Play-Offs.

The four nations that win their World Group II Play-offs will be in the World Group II the following year; the four losers will begin the next year in Group I Zonal events.

• About Zonal Competition

Zonal Competition is below the level of the World Group and World Group II. There are three zones:

1. American Zone
2. Asia/Oceania Zone
3. Europe/Africa Zone

Each zone has two groups: Group I (higher group), Group II (lower group); the Europe/Africa Zone has also Group III.

All groups play a round robin competition. Each year, two best teams from the Europe/Africa Zone and the winners of the American Zone and Asia/Oceania Zone play in the World Group II Play-Offs against those that lost their World Group II ties.

Winners of groups two and three in each zone get promoted to a higher group, while the losers get relegated (unless they are playing in the lowest group already). (sources: Fed Cup Official Website, Wikipedia)

A five-time Grand Slam singles and nine-time Grand Slam doubles winner, Martina Hingis, accepted the 2007 Meredith Inspiration Award in Charleston three days ago. The award is given to a female professional athlete who has inspired women from all over the world to achieve their best, both in personal and in professional life. Martina earned this award by her action both on and off the court. Charleston donated $5,000, and Hingis added another $5,000; these $10,000 she chose to give to UNICEF's Basic Education and Gender Equality program. (source: martinaworld.com)

Second seed Jelena Jankovic beat fourth seed Dinara Safina 6-2, 6-2 in Sunday final of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. This is the first Tier I final for Jankovic, and her biggest victory so far.

Strong wind made this match difficult for both players. "The wind was so strong and the balls were going all over the place," Jankovic said after the match. Her opponent agreed: "It was so windy that it was tough to play our game. It was going everywhere. It was difficult to serve, like you're tossing the ball, and the ball just goes … flying in front or like, wherever."

The Serbian reached the final by defeating Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in a long and uncertain match. The Russian player had an easier way to the final; her semifinal opponent, Vera Zvonareva, retired because of wrist injury, while her opponent in the quarterfinal, Tatiana Golovin, withdraw at the end of the first set due to injured ankle.

Today, Both Jankovic and Safina jumped two spots at the WTA rankings. Jankovic was world No.9 and today she is No.7. One year younger Dinara Safina moved from No.12 to No.10.

(source: ESPN)

With this title Jankovic accompanies Serena Williams and Justine Henin as players who have won two titles in 2007. Serena won the Australian Open and the Sony Ericsson Open; Justine has titles from Dubai Duty Free Women's Open and Qatar Total Open. Jelena won Auckland in January and now she has Charleston trophy too.

Justine Henin has started training on clay court this week, and will continue to practice during the next two weeks.

Before Roland Garros, we will see her in the J&S Cup, starting April 30 in Warsaw, and in the Qatar German Open held in Berlin in early May. After these tournaments, the Queen of clay will have two weeks of intensive training to prepare for the French Open which she won in 2003, 2005, and 2006.

(source: Justine Henin's website)

Ninth seed Vera Zvonareva retired from the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup at the moment fellow Russian Dinara Safina, seeded four, lead 6-3, 0-1. Zvonareva had to give up the match due to wrist injury. Actually, both players had problems with wrists which forced them to withdraw from their doubles matches, so that they could focus on the singles.

Dinara Safina, ranked No. 12, meets world No. 9 Jelena Jankovic in the final of Charleston. Earlier today, Jankovic defeated Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

So far, Safina and Jankovic have played only once, in Paris, on hardcourt; Jankovic retired from the match, and Safina won 6-3, 0-1.

What a match! Two hours and thirty minutes of uncertainty! Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic both played very well at the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup, but somebody had to come out as a winner, and it was a player from Serbia. Jankovic overwhelmed Williams 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). A five-time Grand Slam champion won the first set 6-3. The second set was particularly interesting — first six games were all breaks. The one to end that series was second seed Jelena Jankovic who managed to take the lead, and eventually win the second set. However, the third set was also thrilling, especially the tie break. The tension was great. Jelena's match point added even more nervousness — it was debatable whether it was out or not.

I can mention that this is the second time Jelena wins the tie break when she plays Venus; last time it was at Wimbledon when she won 10-8.

Both Jelena Jankovic and Venus Williams will be ranked higher on Monday. Jelena, world No. 9, will be ranked No. 7; Venus, who is currently world No. 29, will jump to No. 22.

Jankovic's opponent in the final will be a Russian player, either ninth seed Vera Zvonareva or fourth seed Dinara Safina whose match is currently in progress.

Unseeded Venus Williams upset Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 7-5 to reach the final four of the Family Circle Cup. There, she will meet second seed Jelena Jankovic who defeated Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 6-0. Soon, we will know the names of the other two players who will meet in the semifinals of this $1,3 million tournament.

Only three women from the top ten will take part in the first round of the Fed Cup — Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze; they are all representatives of Russia.

Why won't the other highly ranked players compete in the Fed Cup?

• Top-ranked Justine Henin of Belgium wants to have enough time to prepare for the clay-season, as well as to treat her breathing problems. Her next tournament will be Warsaw, starting April 30.
• Maria Sharapova, Russia's highest-ranked player, won't make her Fed Cup debut because of injured shoulder and hamstring.
• France's Amelie Mauresmo is recovering from her appendectomy.
• Kim Clijsters, another Belgian top player, decided to skip the Fed Cup because of her busy schedule.
• Countries of Martina Hingis (Switzerland), Nicole Vaidisova (the Czech Republic) and Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) are not in the World Group.

Serena's injury forced her to pull out of her second-round match with Taiwan's Chan Yung-Jan. At the moment she gave up, she was leading 5-3.

"I've been playing a lot on the clay. I was just sliding a lot and I think I just slid too far," Serena said after the match.

Now it's certain that we won't have the pleasure of watching a clash between the Williams sisters in Charleston, even though it was likely that they would meet in the third round. Their last encounter was at the 2005 US Open.

(via BBC Sport)