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U.S. Battles for 18th Fed Cup Championship

LOS ANGELES — Tennis Channel will provide exclusive live coverage of the U.S. Fed Cup team’s championship competition against Italy in San Diego this weekend, with live telecasts Saturday, Nov. 6, and Sunday, Nov. 7. The United States and Italy find themselves competing in a rematch of last year’s final. Play will consist of two singles matches on Saturday, followed by two singles matches and the doubles match Sunday. Tennis Channel will carry all matches live, beginning at 4 p.m. ET each day.

Coverage from San Diego Sports Arena (all times ET):

Saturday, Nov. 6:

• 4 p.m. - Live Singles #1
• 6 p.m. - Live Singles #2

Sunday, Nov. 7:

• 4 p.m. - Live Singles #3
• 6 p.m. - Live Singles #4
• 8 p.m. - Live Doubles

The United States and Italy have faced each other nine times in Fed Cup play, with the Italians winning their only victory against the United States 4-0 last year in the championship round in Reggio Calabria. The Americans enter this weekend’s matchup after defeating France 4-1 and Russia 3-2 en route to the final. The U.S. team leads all nations in Fed Cup titles and will attempt to capture its 18th this weekend and its first at home since 2000, when the United States defeated Russia 5-0 in Las Vegas. Retired tennis star and a member of the winning U.S. Fed Cup team in 1996, Mary Joe Fernandez will lead the United States Fed Cup team into her second season and second-consecutive final as captain.

Last year Melanie Oudin became the youngest American to reach the US Open quarterfinals since 1999, and comes into this weekend’s championship after reaching the semifinals at the Paris Open and four WTA Tour quarterfinals. Bethanie Mattek-Sands recently reached the doubles semifinals at Wimbledon with Fed Cup teammate Liezel Huber before losing to the tournament’s eventual champions Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova. Fed Cup newcomer Coco Vandeweghe had a breakout summer that saw the 2008 US Open girls’ champion reach the quarterfinals a the Olympus US Open Series in San Diego and captured her first two professional titles at USTA Pro Circuit events this spring. Huber is currently the No. 1 ranked doubles player in the world, holding four Grand Slam doubles titles and wining this year’s US Open mixed doubles title with Bob Bryan.

Italy, Fed Cup champions in 2006 and 2009, enter this weekend’s final for the fourth time in five years after disappointing Ukraine 4-1 in the first round and the Czech Republic 5-0 in the semifinals. The team is captained by Corrado Barazzutti and features Italian tennis stars Flavia Pennetta, Francesca Schiavone, Sara Errani, and Roberta Vinci.

Tennis Channel is the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle. A hybrid of comprehensive sports, health, fitness, pop culture, entertainment, lifestyle and travel programming, the network is home to every aspect of the wide-ranging, worldwide tennis community. It also has the most concentrated single-sport coverage in television, with telecast rights to the US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open), Australian Open, Olympus US Open Series, ATP Masters Series, top-tier Sony Ericsson WTA Tour championship competitions, Davis Cup and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, and Hyundai Hopman Cup. Tennis Channel is carried by nine of the top 10 MSOs, Verizon FiOS TV, AT&T U-verse, DIRECTV and DISH Network.

Posted on November 4, 2010
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