Greek Fed Cup team to play in Estonia

Greece will compete at the Fed Cup Group I event in Tallinn, Estonia, but without world number 21 Maria Sakkari on this year’s team.

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The Greek team, competing in Group I for the second year in a row (following two consecutive promotions in 2017 and 2018), will have a tough task ahead of them as they will aim to avoid relegation and possibly gain promotion to the World Group qualifiers for 2021. The absence of Sakkari is a massive blow to Greece, as she would have been the second-highest ranked player in the entire Group I competition, with only world number four Elina Svitolina of Ukraine being ranked higher than Sakkari.

For the second straight year, Group I has been split into two separate events. Greece will be competing in Event A in Tallinn, Estonia, on indoor hard courts. Also competing there will be host Estonia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, and Ukraine. Event B is being held in Luxembourg, where Luxembourg, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Turkey will participate. Each event will see two teams gain promotion and one team relegated.

Greece was drawn into Pool A alongside Estonia, Austria, and Italy. The top two in the pool will advance to the promotional play-off, while the last-placed team will fight to stay in Group I in the relegation play-off. All matches will consist of two singles matches and one doubles match. The standard best two out of three set scoring system will be used.

This year’s Greek team will consist of Valentini Grammatikopoulou, Michaela Laki, Despina Papamichail, Dimitra Pavlou, and coach Tasos Bavelas. Sakkari was initially called up, but was since replaced by Pavlou, who happens to be Sakkari’s first cousin. 

Papamichail is the highest ranked player on the team, currently at a career-high ranking of 258 in the world. She is also ranked 248 in doubles. The 26-year-old from Preveza will be playing on the Greek team for the eighth year since her debut in 2010, holding a 16-18 overall record (11-4 in singles and 5-14 in doubles). 

Grammatikopoulou is Greece’s second-highest ranked player, currently at 301 in the world (though with a career-high of 158 from November of 2018). The 22-year-old from Kilkis is also ranked 280 in doubles. She will be playing on the Greek team for the sixth year since her debut in 2014. Grammatikopoulou holds a 12-6 overall record in Fed Cup play (9-4 in singles and 3-2 in doubles). She and Papamichail are expected to play most of Greece’s matches in Estonia.

Rounding out Greece’s team will be 15-year-old Dimitra Pavlou and 14-year-old Michaela Laki, as both will be making their Fed Cup debuts. Neither have professional rankings yet, but they are Greece’s highest-ranked junior (U18) players. Laki is currently ranked 180, and Pavlou is ranked 568. Laki won the European U14 Junior Championships last year, and is considered to be one of the best players in the world for her age.

Greece’s first match will take place on Wednesday against Estonia. The hosts have world number 22 Anett Kontaveit on their team, who recently reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. However, Kontaveit is the only player on Estonia’s team that is ranked in the world’s top 500. Greece will then face Austria on Thursday, before rounding out pool play against Italy on Friday.

by Andrew Stamas

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