Surface: Indoor Hard

Rosters: United States—Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Christina McHale, Liezel Huber. Belarus—Victoria Azarenka, Anastasia Yakimova, Olga Govortsova, Darya Kustova

2011 Results: A year after reaching the Fed Cup Final, the United States won just one of ten combined rubbers between their first round tie against Belgium and their World Group Playoff against Germany. They were thus relegated to World Group II. Belarus, meanwhile, was promoted after going 4-0 in Europe/Africa Zone play (basically the third level in the Fed Cup hierarchy) and swept past Estonia 5-0 in the World Group II Playoffs to advance.

World Group Main Draw

Fed Cup 101: The Fed Cup World Group, similar to the men’s Davis Cup, is an annual, and highly prestigious, international tennis competition between the top 8 nations in the world. It consists of three rounds of a single-elimination knockout-style format and runs from early February to early November. Each matchup between countries (e.g. Russia vs. Czech Republic) is referred to as a tie, with the individual matches comprising the tie known as rubbers (e.g. Vera Zvonareva vs. Petra Kvitova). Each tie is best-of-five rubbers consisting of two singles matches on day one and two reverse singles matches and one doubles match on day two. Each team has four players on its roster to be distributed, at the team captain’s discretion, over the five rubbers. Each rubber is best-of-three sets. The defending champion and 2012 top-seed is the Czech Republic.

Note: As in European club soccer, the Fed Cup consists of several levels of competition. The World Group is the top level, which is comprised of three rounds. Losers in the first round are relegated to the World Group Playoffs and will take on winners from the playoffs of the next level (World Group II). Losers of the World Group II Playoffs are relegated to basement of competition, which is categorized by geographic zone (Americas Zone, Asia/Oceania Zone and Europe/Africa Zone).

United States vs. Belarus Breakdown: For a mid-level World Group II tie, storylines abound here. Victoria Azarenka is the new world number one and Australian Open champion. Serena Williams is looking rather vulnerable after being upset by Sam Stosur and Ekaterina Makarova in the past two Slams. Is she really 100% healthy after missing a year due to various ailments? Speaking of health issues, sister Venus Williams will be making her 2012 debut here after being diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome last year. Will the Williams sisters be as much of a force as they have been in the past? On the Belarusian side, Azarenka is the only threat to a U.S. victory with her three compatriots averaging a world ranking of 255. Meanwhile, the United States also boasts rising star Christina McHale and doubles world number one, the 35-year-old ageless wonder, Liezel Huber. Azarenka must win both her singles rubbers and hope for an upset in one of the three other matches for Belarus to advance.

Head-to-Head: 0-0. This is the first meeting between the United States and Belarus.

Official Rubbers (best-of-5): Day 1 (singles)—McHale vs. Azarenka, S. Williams vs. Govortsova Day 2 (singles/doubles)—S. Williams vs. Azarenka, McHale vs. Govortsova. Huber/V. Williams vs. Azarenka/Govortsova

Singles Edge: Even. After back-to-back titles in Sydney and Melbourne to begin the year, going 5-0 against top-10 opponents including a beatdown of Maria Sharapova in the Aussie final, I see Azarenka winning both her singles rubbers. On the other side of the coin, Serena and McHale should put the hurt on Govortsova, evening the tie at 2-2. This leads to the deciding doubles match…

Doubles Edge: United States. Veteran Liezel Huber will get the job done here, even if she’s paired with a big question mark in Venus Williams. The seven-time Grand Slam doubles champion and current world number one has never won a Davis Cup title, but will bring the United States one step closer in doing so. The lack of talent outside of Azarenka hurts Belarus here.