Fed Cup 2012

DavidC · Tennis legend

RE: Fed Cup 2012

PaulM · Tennis legend

Hi guys, I was looking into this and have posted similar on GBTG.

If they play in Helsinborg again, the 'easiest' travel option is to fly to Denmark (Copenhagen) and then take the train.

There are irregular direct services, but in most cases it is quicker and cheaper to take the train to Helsingor, and then take the ferry across.

Other options are to fly to Gothenburg or Malmo, and take the train. The train is reasonable.

There is a small airport with connections from the various Stockholm airports, but it is very expensive.

If you want to go Fri-Monday, you can fly to Malmo for only £24 return with the dreaded Ryanair from London Stansted. That is VERY cheap!

On the same dates, for those up north you may need to go from Edinburgh, and you can fly to Gothenburg for around £50 return.

Now I've looked into this I'm sure they'll pick someone else, but some of you may have been thinking of taking the trip. I'm sure its stunning in that area at that time of year.

-- Edited by PaulM on Tuesday 14th of February 2012 02:12:08 PM

adz1983 · Intermediate Club Player

No home tie for the girls. Take on Sweden in Sweden. This will be a close tie I reckon. Argentina v. China, France v. Slovenia and Switzerland v. Belarus in the other ties.

LordBrownof · Futures level

Great draw, both singles winnable and the only decent doubles players in the Swedish team are the same two singles players? That's from just looking at the WTA rankings anyway.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

A shame it's not a home tie but the best away option. Sweden were the other team to emerge from the Euro/Africa Zone 1 so at least one team will gain promotion this year.

adz1983 · Intermediate Club Player

LordBrownof wrote:
Great draw, both singles winnable and the only decent doubles players in the Swedish team are the same two singles players? That's from just looking at the WTA rankings anyway.

Anne is 1-1 in head to head with Larsson both in 2008 way before Larsson made leaps and bounds up the rankings. Anne v. Arvidsson is 4-7 but of the last 3 matches Anne has won twice and lost in three sets in the other.

Elena has never played Larsson and played Arvidsson once back in 2005 losing in 3 sets.

kaseldop · Social player

What surface will the tie be played on? If clay I'm not so confident.

steven · Tennis legend

Sounds like they aren't thinking of holding it outdoors on clay (not a huge surprise given the time of year!)

"Fed Cup-kaptenen är övertygad om att det kommer handla om inomhusspel i alla fall." near the end of http://bit.ly/yEGqsq means their Fed Cup captain expects the tie to be played indoors whatever happens.

steven · Tennis legend

adz1983 wrote:
LordBrownof wrote:
Great draw, both singles winnable and the only decent doubles players in the Swedish team are the same two singles players? That's from just looking at the WTA rankings anyway.
Anne is 1-1 in head to head with Larsson both in 2008 way before Larsson made leaps and bounds up the rankings. Anne v. Arvidsson is 4-7 but of the last 3 matches Anne has won twice and lost in three sets in the other.
Elena has never played Larsson and played Arvidsson once back in 2005 losing in 3 sets.

Pity it's away, but probably the best draw - evenly matched top twos and we have good cover whereas they have none - which is one reason why Arvidsson holds every Swedish all-time Fed Cup record going! http://www.fedcup.com/en/teams/team/profile.aspx?id=SWE

It's worth adding to the H2Hs that Heather is 1-0 against both of them - she beat Arvidsson in straight sets in Québec City and she beat Larsson from a set down in Nassau.

steven · Tennis legend

PaulM wrote:
Hi guys, I was looking into this and have posted similar on GBTG.

If they play in Helsinborg again, the 'easiest' travel option is to fly to Denmark (Copenhagen) and then take the train.

There are irregular direct services, but in most cases it is quicker and cheaper to take the train to Helsingor, and then take the ferry across.

Other options are to fly to Gothenburg or Malmo, and take the train. The train is reasonable.

There is a small airport with connections from the various Stockholm airports, but it is very expensive.

If you want to go Fri-Monday, you can fly to Malmo for only £24 return with the dreaded Ryanair from London Stansted. That is VERY cheap!

On the same dates, for those up north you may need to go from Edinburgh, and you can fly to Gothenburg for around £50 return.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to go to this tie, much as I'd love to (might have been able to make it had it been at home) but I can vouch for the fact that Copenhagen then train/ferry/train is the best option if they hold it in Helsingborg. It's also a good option if they hold it in Bastad, which they may well do if they decide to play it on clay and they risk holding it outdoors in April.

DavidC · Tennis legend

Definitely the best of the away draws given:

a) the Swedish squad has less depth than the other 3 possible opponents
b) there is no surface which gives Sweden a marked advantage, given that their players are not clay court specialists
c) they may not have a viable option to play on clay. Playing outside in April is unlikely given the normal temperature - May is the earliest they have played Challengers/Futures on clay in recent years at least. The last time they played a Davis Cup or Fed Cup tie indoors on clay was for the 1988 Davis Cup final. Putting down a special court for Wilander et al to take on the Germans was perfectly sensible financially, but I doubt whether the Swedish Federation would justify the cost for a Fed Cup WG2 play-off. So unless they have indoor clay courts in a suitable venue I guess that it will be on a slow-medium indoor hard court.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Arvidsson lists her favourite surface as Carpet so that looks the most likely option.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

steven wrote:

"Fed Cup-kaptenen är övertygad om att det kommer handla om inomhusspel i alla fall." near the end of http://bit.ly/yEGqsq means their Fed Cup captain expects the tie to be played indoors whatever happens.

Is there no end to your talents? Speak 'hurdy gurdy' as well

steven · Tennis legend

Julia Carrot wrote:
steven wrote:

"Fed Cup-kaptenen är övertygad om att det kommer handla om inomhusspel i alla fall." near the end of http://bit.ly/yEGqsq means their Fed Cup captain expects the tie to be played indoors whatever happens.
Is there no end to your talents? Speak 'hurdy gurdy' as well

LOL by 'hurdy gurdy,' do you mean Swedish (as in the Swedish chef from the Muppet Show) or Dutch (which always sounds a bit 'hurdy gurdy' to me) - I don't speak either but knowing a fair bit of German helps in deciphering both languages, especially if the subject matter is familiar.

In that Swedish sentence, you don't even need German to work out what Fed Cup-kaptenen means wink , övertygad looks like "overt" which suggests something like "clearly stated" ... then it's not hard to guess that inomhuss means "in the house" i.e. indoors, and handla om ... spel i alla fall is very close to the something German like "handelt um ... [Indoor-]Spiel auf alle Fälle" which more or less means "it'll involve ... [indoor]play whatever happens."

If you know the odd European language, it's not that hard to make a stab at deciphering a few more, though it is all too easy to make embarrassing mistakes with those annoying words that look like they are similar to words in a language you know but actually mean something completely different. ashamed

Alternatively, of course, you can use Google translate and (as I found out when using it to translate Hebrew during Fed Cup week) often get a good laugh into the bargain. biggrin

Julia Carrot · All-time great

All the Scandanavian Languages sound like up and down ''Hurdy gurdy gurdy hurdy'' to me (!). Must check out You tube for the Muppet Chef.

I like your breakdown of the Swedish sentence, but don't think, even with a big effort, I could have got that far. I am inspired to try harder in future though