Japan's Takao to make Fed Cup tennis debut

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Erika Takao, seen here in January 2007 in Tokyo, will make her debut in the Fed Cup tennis tournament when Japan, without ace Ai Sugiyama, take on Germany in a play-off tie for the World Group. — Photo: Internet

TOYOTA (Japan), Jul 13 (AFP): Erika Takao will make her debut in the Fed Cup tennis tournament when Japan, without ace Ai Sugiyama, take on Germany in a play-off tie for the World Group.
Former world doubles number one Sugiyama, who reached the doubles finals at the French Open and Wimbledon this season, will skip the tie due to a foot injury she got during Wimbledon.
The 19-year-old Takao, who won the challenger titles in Gifu, Nagoya and Miyazaki last season, will open the best-of-five tie on Saturday against Tatjana Malek, also 19, who has two singles and one doubles wins in her Fed Cup career.
That will be followed by a match between Ayumi Morita, 17, and Angelique Kerber, 19, who is also making her Fed Cup debut.
After two reverse singles on Sunday, Rika Fujiwara and Tomoko Yonemura will play Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Andrea Petkovic in the last doubles match.
The winning team will play in the World Group next year and the losers in the World Group II.
Japan have only one win against Germany in six encounters. The victory came when former world number four Kimiko Date shocked then world number one Steffi Graf in an exciting tie that ended 3-2 in Tokyo in 1996.
Japan lost to France 5-0 in first round matches for the World Group, while Germany defeated Croatia 4-1 to make a berth in the play-off.