MONTREAL (AP)—Top-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia lost her second-round matchup with qualifier Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (3), 6-3 on Tuesday night.

Jankovic has played only four matches in three tournaments this month after missing two weeks with an ankle injury she says is completely recovered.

“I didn’t really feel like a top-five player out there,” said Jankovic, who has never won the Rogers Cup. “My game hasn’t been at the top level for the last couple of tournaments.”

The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam where Jankovic has reached the final, losing to Serena Williams in 2008.

Jankovic is hoping she can find her game in the short time that remains before the start of the final Grand Slam of the year on Aug. 30.

“I really wanted to play matches here, and at the last tournament, but I didn’t do that and now I haven’t played many matches before the U.S. Open,” Jankovic said. “So I’ll just try my best over there, and hopefully I’ll be better.”

Benesova, ranked No. 75 in the world, won her sixth match in the past five days, winning three on the weekend in qualifying plus her first-round singles and doubles matches on Monday.

“I think it was good for me because I haven’t had a very good season this year,” said Benesova, who improved her 2010 singles record to 17-18. “It was good for my confidence.”

It was the biggest win of Benesova’s 12-year pro career, her previous best being a victory over then-No. 5 Mary Pierce in the second round of the 2006 Australian Open.

“This is definitely the biggest victory of my career, I’m just very excited,” Benesova said. “It was a great match for me.”

Benesova will face the winner of the second-round match between France’s Marion Bartoli and Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm.

Jankovic got off to a strong start, winning her first two service games at love and breaking Benesova to go up 5-3 in the first with a chance to serve out the set. But Benesova broke right back and forced a tiebreaker, winning the final three points to take it 7-3.

The players exchanged breaks in the second set until Benesova broke Jankovic again to go ahead 5-3 and served out the match, standing on the baseline with both hands on her head as the crowd roared approval.

No. 17 seed Marion Bartoli earned an easy 6-1, 6-0 win in 69 minutes.

The eighth-seeded Vera Zvonareva made quick work of Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, winning their second-round match 6-2, 6-1 in 67 minutes.

No. 11 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova needed three sets to defeat fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

From 2006 to 2009 Kuznetsova was a perennial top-five player, reaching a career-high No. 2 in 2007, but she arrived in Montreal ranked 16th in the world.

Kuznetsova said she feels she is slowly getting back to that top-five form.

“Before, I was more aggressive, I was going for the balls, and I think I have that back,” Kuznetsova said. “I think my game is better. I feel like I’m back, I’m back in my game and it all depends on me.”

No. 10 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-1, 15th seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy ousted Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-0, 7-5, and 18th seed Nadia Petrova of Russia was stretched to the limit 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 by Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.

Date-Krumm, the 39-year-old who received entry into the main draw only after Maria Sharapova pulled out Sunday night with a heel injury, won her first-round match 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-2 over Romanian qualifier Monica Niculescu.

After three qualifiers advanced to the second round on Monday, two more advanced Tuesday with victories by Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Russia’s Maria Kirilenko had a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, who made the final here in 2008.

Maria Sharapova pulls out of Montreal with a foot injury, joining an exodus of star players from the WTA Premier 5 event. Sharapova is unsure of the extent of the injury, which she sustained in the second set of her loss to Kim Clijsters in the Cincinnati final, but hopes to compete at the U.S. Open.

Both Serena and Venus Williams are out of Montreal with injuries, as is No. 6 Sam Stosur. Former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic turned down a wild card last week and then injured her ankle in the Cincinnati semis. Since April, 12 of the WTA’s current Top 15 players have either retired from a match or pulled out of a tournament with injures.—Matthew Cronin

MASON, Ohio (AP)—Kim Clijsters is turning Cincinnati into her kind of town.

The defending U.S. Open champion reached the semifinals at the Cincinnati Open on Friday, beating Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (6), 6-4 in oppressive afternoon heat. The fourth-seeded Clijsters will face Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic.

No. 10 Maria Sharapova also reached the semifinals, beating France’s Marion Bartoli 6-1, 6-4 in the evening match. She’ll play fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Clijsters is the highest remaining seed. Five of the top eight were eliminated on Thursday. Serena and Venus Williams dropped out with injuries before the tournament began.
 
That left center court to Clijsters, who seems to like the place.

Clijsters returned to tennis in Cincinnati last year, reaching the quarterfinals after a two-year break to start a family and get recharged. The 27-year-old Belgian reached the quarterfinals in Cincinnati and found her touch. A few weeks later, she won the U.S. Open.

This year, she took a break from tournament play after Wimbledon and arrived in town hoping to use Cincinnati as a springboard again.

So far, the hard courts have been agreeable.

“There’s moments when it’s good, moments when it’s not good,” she said. “Each match has gone better. That’s what I’m looking for.”

Clijsters passed her toughest test of the week, making a few more shots than Pennetta in a match close throughout. She hit a service winner to go up 7-6 in the tiebreaker, and Pennetta sailed a forehand wide to settle the sweaty first set.

Clijsters went to her seat and squirted cold water over her hair, trying to get a little relief. On-court temperatures have registered 120 degrees the past couple of days, with oppressive humidity that made it tough to breathe after long points.

The heat had a lot to do with setting up her semifinal opponent.

Down 5-1 in the opening set of her quarterfinal match against Yanina Wickmayer, Pavlyuchenkova started to think about doing better in the second set. Turned out the first one was far from over.

Taking advantage of a heat-drained opponent, the 19-year-old Russian rallied for a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 win that extended one of the best stretches of her career.

“It was really tough conditions today,” Pavlyuchenkova said.

Her opponent used so much energy getting ahead 5-1 in the first set that she began feeling the strain. Her legs got a little shaky. Her game fell apart.

“I started off really well in the first set, got really tired after that,” Wickmayer said. “And she came back and put up a great fight.”

Pavlyuchenkova is coming off a title at Istanbul. Asked if she has the energy to extend her streak of nine straight wins, she said, “I don’t know. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Sharapova will be rested. Bartoli had only seven points and eight unforced errors while falling behind 5-0 in the first set. Sharapova has dropped only one set in four matches this week.

“I was playing at a very high level the whole match,” Sharapova said. “Many things were going really well for me.”

The last remaining qualifier melted away at the $2 million Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.

Akgul Amanmuradova pulled off the biggest upset of the week, knocking off top-seeded Jelena Jankovic in two sets on Thursday. It was the biggest career win for the 26-year-old Amanmuradova, who is ranked No. 114 and had never beaten a Top 10 player.

A day later, she never had a chance against Ivanovic, losing 6-1, 6-3 in only 56 minutes.

“I was really tired from the whole week and all the matches,” Amanmuradova said. “So obviously my serve speed broke down a little bit, which makes a lot of difference on this level.”

MASON, Ohio (AP)—Kim Clijsters reached the final of the Cincinnati Open on Saturday when Ana Ivanovic hurt her left foot only 12 minutes into their match and left the court in tears.

The fourth-seeded Belgian will be well-rested when she plays her third title match of the year. Ivanovic’s injury allowed the 27-year-old Clijsters to get a break from the oppressive afternoon heat—an on-court thermometer reached 120 degrees during the week.

Russians Maria Sharapova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were set to play in the other semifinal on Saturday night.
 
The first semifinal ended after only 25 points.

Clijsters broke Ivanovic’s serve to go up 2-1. In the next game, the Serb appeared to twist her left foot while setting up to make a forehand return from the baseline. She hit one more point during the rally—another forehand—then dropped her racket and bent over in pain.

Already, she knew it was bad.

“All of a sudden on that one shot, I felt something, you know, crack a little bit,” Ivanovic said. “I was very scared.”

Ivanovic straightened up, cupped her hands behind her head and winced in pain. She walked gingerly to her chair and took a medical timeout, removing her shoe. A trainer rubbed the inside of the foot, got the foot taped and tried to continue.

After the second point—a serve that Ivanovic didn’t even bother to chase—the match was over.

“I tried bit of tape, but I could not put any weight on it, and there was no point in me continuing,” she said.

Ivanovic cried as she hobbled toward the net, where Clijsters embraced her with a hug. Then, she left to have the foot examined by a doctor.

Ivanovic had the front of her foot taped because of blisters to start the match, but said there was no problem until the rally.

“Just on that one forehand when I went to step around it, I just felt like pain all of a sudden, so much pain in my foot and I couldn’t step on it anymore,” she said.

It was another setback in a disappointing season for the former No. 1-ranked player. She was limited by an injured right shoulder early in the season and had trouble getting back in form. She hasn’t reached the final at any tournament this year, and came to Cincinnati ranked No. 62.

She had a good week, reaching only her third semifinal of the year. The foot injury left the rest of her disappointing season in doubt.

“I played some really great tennis, and I was very excited about this match,” she said.

Clijsters has turned Cincinnati into her comeback city each of the last two years.

Last year, Clijsters returned to tennis in Cincinnati after taking more than two years off to start a family and recharge. She got her game together quickly, reached the quarterfinals and built upon the momentum, winning the U.S. Open title.

This year, she was sidelined for nearly two months after tearing muscles in her left foot, forcing her to miss the French Open. She took a break from tournament play after Wimbledon, then showed up in Cincinnati looking to get her game together again.

Her path to the final opened up when Serena and Venus Williams both withdrew because of injuries before the tournament started, and five of the top eight seeds were knocked out on Thursday.

MASON, Ohio (AP)—Kim Clijsters is turning Cincinnati into her kind of town.

The defending U.S. Open champion reached the semifinals at the Cincinnati Open on Friday, beating Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (6), 6-4 in oppressive afternoon heat. The fourth-seeded Clijsters will face Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic.

No. 10 Maria Sharapova also reached the semifinals, beating France’s Marion Bartoli 6-1, 6-4 in the evening match. She’ll play fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Clijsters is the highest remaining seed. Five of the top eight were eliminated on Thursday. Serena and Venus Williams dropped out with injuries before the tournament began.
 
That left center court to Clijsters, who seems to like the place.

Clijsters returned to tennis in Cincinnati last year, reaching the quarterfinals after a two-year break to start a family and get recharged. The 27-year-old Belgian reached the quarterfinals in Cincinnati and found her touch. A few weeks later, she won the U.S. Open.

This year, she took a break from tournament play after Wimbledon and arrived in town hoping to use Cincinnati as a springboard again.

So far, the hard courts have been agreeable.

“There’s moments when it’s good, moments when it’s not good,” she said. “Each match has gone better. That’s what I’m looking for.”

Clijsters passed her toughest test of the week, making a few more shots than Pennetta in a match close throughout. She hit a service winner to go up 7-6 in the tiebreaker, and Pennetta sailed a forehand wide to settle the sweaty first set.

Clijsters went to her seat and squirted cold water over her hair, trying to get a little relief. On-court temperatures have registered 120 degrees the past couple of days, with oppressive humidity that made it tough to breathe after long points.

The heat had a lot to do with setting up her semifinal opponent.

Down 5-1 in the opening set of her quarterfinal match against Yanina Wickmayer, Pavlyuchenkova started to think about doing better in the second set. Turned out the first one was far from over.

Taking advantage of a heat-drained opponent, the 19-year-old Russian rallied for a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 win that extended one of the best stretches of her career.

“It was really tough conditions today,” Pavlyuchenkova said.

Her opponent used so much energy getting ahead 5-1 in the first set that she began feeling the strain. Her legs got a little shaky. Her game fell apart.

“I started off really well in the first set, got really tired after that,” Wickmayer said. “And she came back and put up a great fight.”

Pavlyuchenkova is coming off a title at Istanbul. Asked if she has the energy to extend her streak of nine straight wins, she said, “I don’t know. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Sharapova will be rested. Bartoli had only seven points and eight unforced errors while falling behind 5-0 in the first set. Sharapova has dropped only one set in four matches this week.

“I was playing at a very high level the whole match,” Sharapova said. “Many things were going really well for me.”

The last remaining qualifier melted away at the $2 million Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.

Akgul Amanmuradova pulled off the biggest upset of the week, knocking off top-seeded Jelena Jankovic in two sets on Thursday. It was the biggest career win for the 26-year-old Amanmuradova, who is ranked No. 114 and had never beaten a Top 10 player.

A day later, she never had a chance against Ivanovic, losing 6-1, 6-3 in only 56 minutes.

“I was really tired from the whole week and all the matches,” Amanmuradova said. “So obviously my serve speed broke down a little bit, which makes a lot of difference on this level.”

Game Point is Busted Racquet’s roundup of facts, figures and links from around the web.

Love — If Ana Ivanovic can make it to the finals in Cincinnati, she’d likely earn enough rankings points to be seeded at this month’s U.S. Open. Even if Ivanovic loses in the semis, she’ll move into the top 40 in next week’s rankings.

15 — Somebody who will definitely be seeded in New York is David Nalbandian, a stunning rise considering that just five days ago he was No. 117 in the world. The Argentinian’s win in D.C. moved him up 72 spots and a quarterfinal appearance in Toronto will move him firmly within the top 32. In 2006, Nalbandian was as high as No. 3 in the rankings before injuries slowed him.

30 — Melanie Oudin will need a repeat performance at the Open if she wants to keep out of qualifying events. The 18-year-old has been living off the rankings points gained during her quarterfinal run in 2009. Despite a 17-18 record in 2010, she’s still No. 44. A first-round loss in Flushing Meadows could drop her into the 80s.  

40 — If Roger Federer doesn’t advance as far as Andy Murray, it’s conceivable the 16-time Grand Slam champ could fall to No. 4 after the Open. Of course, it’s also conceivable that he wins the thing and moves back to No. 2.

Game — And despite the fact that she’s hanging out more with Kim Kardashian than she is playing tournament tennis, Serena Williams can’t relinquish the No. 1 ranking in New York. For that matter, neither can Rafael Nadal.

MASON, Ohio (AP)—Kim Clijsters is turning Cincinnati into her kind of town.

The defending U.S. Open champion reached the semifinals at the Cincinnati Open on Friday, beating Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (6), 6-4 in oppressive afternoon heat. The fourth-seeded Clijsters will face Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic.

Clijsters is the highest remaining seed. Five of the top eight were eliminated on Thursday. Serena and Venus Williams dropped out with injuries before the tournament began.

That left center court to Clijsters, who seems to like the place.

Clijsters returned to tennis in Cincinnati last year, reaching the quarterfinals after a two-year break to start a family and get recharged. The 27-year-old Belgian reached the quarterfinals in Cincinnati and found her touch. A few weeks later, she won the U.S. Open.

This year, she took a break from tournament play after Wimbledon and arrived in town hoping to use Cincinnati as a springboard again.

So far, the hard courts have been agreeable.

Clijsters passed her toughest test of the week, making a few more shots than Pennetta in a match close throughout. She hit a service winner to go up 7-6 in the tiebreaker, and Pennetta sailed a forehand wide to settle the sweaty first set.

Clijsters went to her seat and squirted cold water over her hair, trying to get a little relief. On-court temperatures have registered 120 degrees the past couple of days, with oppressive humidity that made it tough to breathe after long points.

Pennetta broke her in the second set to go up 3-2, which only seemed to make Clijsters more determined. She broke the Italian right back and served out the one-hour, 48-minute match on a court that felt more like a griddle.

The heat had a lot to do with how the day’s first match turned out.

Down 5-1 in the opening set, Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova started to think about doing better in the second set. Turned out the first one was far from over.

Taking advantage of a heat-drained opponent, the 19-year-old Russian rallied for a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 win over Yanina Wickmayer, extending one of the best stretches of her career.

“It was really tough conditions today,” Pavlyuchenkova said.

Her opponent used so much energy getting ahead 5-1 in the first set that she began feeling the strain. Her legs got a little shaky. Her game fell apart.

“I started off really well in the first set, got really tired after that,” Wickmayer said. “And she came back and put up a great fight.”

Pavlyuchenkova is coming off a title at Istanbul. Asked if she has the energy to extend her streak of nine straight wins, she said, “I don’t know. We’ll see tomorrow.”

The last remaining qualifier also melted away at the $2 million Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.

Akgul Amanmuradova pulled off the biggest upset of the week, knocking off top-seeded Jelena Jankovic in two sets on Thursday. It was the biggest career win for the 26-year-old Amanmuradova, who is ranked No. 114 and had never beaten a Top 10 player.

A day later, she never had a chance against Ivanovic, losing 6-1, 6-3 in only 56 minutes.

“I was really tired from the whole week and all the matches,” Amanmuradova said. “So obviously my serve speed broke down a little bit, which makes a lot of difference on this level.”

WIMBLEDON, England (AP)—Wimbledon is brightening its wardrobe for the 2012 Olympics.

Organizers of the venerable tournament said Friday the traditional all-white dress rule will be waived for the tennis competition at the London Games.

Players must wear predominantly white clothing during the Grand Slam event. But that will change for the Olympics, and All England Club chief executive Ian Ritchie said Wimbledon had no hesitation in loosening its rules.

“We have been very supportive to the Olympic organizers throughout the process,” he said. “We hope to some extent there will be a different type of audience. It is not a repeat of the Championships. It will be its own competition, have its own style and it will play out in its own way.”

Among other changes, the Royal Box on Centre Court will be filled with the International Olympic Committee “family,” instead of the assorted royalty and dignitaries who congregate there during Wimbledon.

Only 12 of the available 17 courts will be required, meaning crowd capacity will be 26,000, down from 40,000 during the championships.

One tradition, however, will remain: no scheduled night sessions. Play will begin at 11 a.m. local time, and is expected to continue until about 8 p.m. As is the case during Wimbledon, play could carry on under the roof on Centre Court if circumstances demand.

The Olympic tennis event is set to begin July 28, 2012 — 20 days after the end of the Grand Slam tournament.

The All England Club last week made assurances that the grass courts would be resurfaced in time following a successful test this year.

Debbie Jevans, London 2012 director of sport and venues, said Friday that organizers were confident there still would be an appetite for tennis at Wimbledon such a short time later.

“There will be a lot of people who do not get tickets for the Championships,” she said. “It gives them the chance to see the best players in the world.”

The 2012 Olympic tennis event will be the first to include mixed doubles, meaning there will be five gold medals up for grabs at Wimbledon.

The singles events will be played over three sets, except for the men’s final, which will be best-of-five.

Spain’s Rafael Nadal won the gold medal in men’s singles in Beijing four years ago. Roger Federer teamed with Stanislas Wawrinka to win the men’s doubles for Switzerland.

Among the women, Elena Dementieva of Russia won the singles, and American sisters Venus and Serena Williams captured the doubles.

Tickets for the 2012 Olympic tournament go on sale next year.

by Pete Bodo

One thing I’ve already learned from doing News of the Day posts is that news travels fast, at least during tennis-dense periods of the kind currently underway on the hard courts of the U.S. and Canada. Having missed the better part of two days’ action, looking at the draws, parsing the news articles, checking the schedules leaves me feeling overwhelmed. Where to start? More to the point, where to stop and what to leave out? But let’s give it a try.

—You can accuse Andy Roddick of certain shortcomings, but “lack of energy” has never been one of them. So the news that he pulled out of the Rogers Cup (Toronto) because he wasn’t feeling quite right—he hadn’t been feeling quite right from back when he lost to Gilles Simon at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic (Washington)—is a little disturbing. I don’t want to start any rumors here, and Roddick has issued no update on his condition. But mononucleosis (glandular fever) has been so common on the tour that it can almost be called “tennis player disease,” or could be called that if it were not already a euphemism for choking away matches. Roger Federer and Long John Isner, among others, had recent bouts of mono.

A few months ago, Isner told me about how he received support and advice on his own recovery from mono from Federer. That happened in Cincinnati last year, when Isner was just returning to the tour. He was a little freaked out because he was beginning to feel the symptoms (loss of energy) that he experienced before he was diagnosed with mono back in the spring.

So Craig Boynton, Isner’s coach, approached Severin Luthi, Federer’s Davis Cup coach and adviser, seeking advice. The following day, Federer found Isner engaged in a golf video game in the Cincy player lounge. “He came up and talked to me about it,” Isner recalled. “He told me to listen to my body. If I felt spent, I should have no qualms about pulling out or a tournament, or even in the middle of a match. ‘Don’t be afraid or ashamed to do it,’ Roger told me. And for him to take the time, that was pretty cool.”

One secret to Federer’s success and longevity: He loves the locker room culture. It’s not like the guy got his 10 majors and now wants to write dark rock-and-roll anthems, or challenge Hugo Boss as a designer of men’s suits.

—Francesca Schiavone crafted what might well be the best WTA story of the passing year at the French Open, where she emerged as champion. Since then, though, she’s experienced some rough sledding while undoubtedly still riding the emotional high of her great win at Roland Garros.

Schiavone’s loss in the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open (Cincinnati) yesterday dropped her post-Roland Garros record to 1-5. Who cares? She’s a Grand Slam champion—perhaps the most unexpected female champ at a major since Iva Majoli beat Martina Hingis for the same title in 1997. That French title can’t ever be taken away, and these recent losses can’t possibly be remembered, at least not beyond, oh, next Wednesday. So it’s all good, right?

It will probably take something compelling to pull Schiavone out of the tailspin. It could be the U.S. Open, but it might also be—believe it or not—Fed Cup. You know what high morale that Italian squad has cultivated, and the fear of letting her teammates down may give Schiavone that extra bit of incentive she needs to shake her head and get it out of the clouds.

All this, of course, goes to show the emotional impact that a huge win can have. And Schiavone could not have had a bigger, less likely one. Now imagine being a Serena Williams, Roger Federer, or Rafael Nadal, routinely bringing home the bacon major after major, year after year, rarely suffering anything like a comparable letdown. It just increases your respect for the giants of the game.

—Things could be worse for Schiavone. She could be, oh, Elena Dementieva, the snakebit pro who’s established herself not just as the best player not to have won a Grand Slam title, but now also looks more and more like the best one destined to maybe never win one. You know that “jump the shark” theory, right? Well, you have to wonder if the semifinal Dementieva lost at Roland Garros isn’t her jumping-the-shark moment. Dementieva was in the midst of another teasing, tempting run at the French Open when she had to retire after losing the first-set tiebreaker to. .  . Schiavone.

The unexpected pass to the final paved the way for Schiavone’s moment of glory; you might even say it allowed Schiavone to snatch a title that seemed destined to go to Dementieva. Remember, the other finalist turned out to be Slammin’ Sam Stosur, a erratic, unpredictable competitor also seeking her first major. The long-expected alignment of the stars seemed to be in the offing for Dementieva.

But Dementieva’s luck transcended the merely bad and now looks almost like a nasty blow delivered by the fates. She appears recovered from that left-calf strain that led her to abandon the French semi, but she won only one singles match (over Kimiko Date Krumm) in the two tournaments she’s played thus far this summer, The Bank of the West Classic (Stanford) and Cincinnati.

—And just a few minutes ago, David Nalbandian pummeled Robin Soderling to make the quarterfinals in Toronto. That brings suddenly resurgent Nalbandian’s winning streak to 11 matches—the best run of his career. We know what this guy can do when he gets a hot hand, so we’ll say it again: Unless Nalbandian’s game goes over a cliff in the next two weeks, he’s positioned to be a force at the final major of the year.

WHITE PLAINS, New York (AP)—Serena and Venus Williams told the U.S. Tennis Association they plan to play in the Fed Cup final against Italy in November.

Neither Williams has competed in the Fed Cup since 2007.

“You always want to have your best players,” U.S. captain Mary Joe Fernandez said on Thursday. “I am very excited that Venus and Serena have made themselves available.”

The United States hasn’t won the Fed Cup since 2000, losing to Italy in last year’s final.

The best-of-five tie is from Nov. 6-7 on an indoor hard-court at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Also on the U.S. team are Melanie Oudin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Liezel Huber. Fernandez called it “one of the strongest lineups in years.”

Serena Williams, who leads active women with 13 Grand Slam singles championships, is 7-0 in Fed Cup action, including 4-0 in singles. She last played for the U.S. in the 2007 quarterfinals.

Her older sister, Venus, who owns seven major singles titles, is 17-4 in the Fed Cup, 14-2 in singles. She last participated in the 2007 semifinals.