The Australia Fed Cup team represents Australia in international women's tennis and is directed by Tennis Australia. The team played in the first ever tournament in 1963, and is one of four teams that has taken part in every single edition since.
The Australian national team is one of the most successful in world tennis. They are seven-time world champions and have reached a total of seventeen finals, both second highest all-time behind United States. Between 1963 and 1980, the Australian team played in every single final except for three. However, in recent times the Australian team has had a comparative lack of success, only appearing in the World Group five times between 1995 and 2010, and never going beyond the first round. However, the team has experienced a resurgence in recent times, accumulating a 15–6 win–loss record since 2005 and returning to the World Group in 2011 and 2013. Dianne Balestrat holds the record for most singles wins by an Australian in Fed Cup, while Wendy Turnbull holds the record for most doubles wins, most overall tie wins, and most ties participated in.
David Taylor was the team's captain since 2005, but has stepped down recently, leaving the position open as of December 2012. Currently, the team is No. 6 in the ITF Rankings, their highest since the rankings inception in 2002.
Famous quotes containing the words australia, fed, cup and/or team:
“It is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and ... they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges.”
—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)
“We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart’s grown brutal from the fare;
More substance in our enmities
Than in our love; O honey-bees,
Come build in the empty house of the stare.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“In poorer lands
No one touches the water of life.
It has no taste
And though it refreshes absolutely
It is a cup that must also pass
Until everybody
Gets some advantage....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“They’re two good old friends of mine. I call them Constitution and The Bill of Rights. A most dependable team for long journeys. Then I’ve got another one called Missouri Compromise. And a Supreme Court—a fine, dignified horse, though you have to push him on every now and then.”
—Dan Totheroh (1895–1976)