A preview of the Fed Cup Group 1, which involves Great Britain and Croatia, along with betting tips. The Fed Cup is equivalent of the Davis Cup with the only difference between the two being that the former is meant for women’s tennis while the latter is for men’s tennis. The Fed Cup 2017 will be the 55th edition of the tournament, which was first held in 1963.

A total of 99 teams participated in the 2016 edition with eight progressing into the World Group. The competition was held to celebrate the International Tennis Federation’s 50th anniversary. As a result, only the ITF members take part in the competition. United States, Czech Republic, and Australia are the only nations to have won the Fed Cup and Davis Cup at the same time.

Format

The Fed Cup 2017 sees Belarus, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, and United States taking part. The quarter finals of the tournament are scheduled for February 11-12, while the semi-finals do not take place until April 22-23. The final will take place in November 11-12. The draw for the quarter finals has produced the following games: Czech Republic vs Spain, Germany vs United States, Belarus vs Netherlands, and Switzerland vs France. Fed Cup predictions will be available in great numbers for the play-offs of the World Group II – the second-highest stage in the Fed Cup.

Teams

The 2017 Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone consists of 14 teams which have been paired up into two pools of four teams and two pools of three teams. Great Britain are in the Pool C which consists of Latvia, Portugal, and Turkey. Tallink Tennis Centre in Estonia will be playing host to these games. This location has an indoor hard court which will have a huge say in the Fed Cup Group 1.

Great Britain are favourites to progress from the Pool C as winners. Croatia might seem to have much less of a challenge as a result of being included in the Pool B. They are up against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary. Croatia are seen as the strong favourites for qualification according to the tennis betting tips. Austria, Georgia, and Poland constitute the Pool A, while the larger Pool D consists of Bulgaria, Estonia, Israel, and Serbia.

Favourites

While England and Croatia are expected to dominate their respective pools, they are also picked as favourites in the tennis betting odds for reaching the World Group II Playoff. World Group II will be providing four teams with Group One Americas Zone and Group One Asia/Oceania Zone contributing one each for these play-offs apart from the two teams provided by Group One Euro/African Zone.

News & Comments

Johanna Konta was named in January in the Great Britain team for play-offs in Estonia taking place in February. Nowadays, GB's men are seen as the world power in the Davis Cup but can women follow the same pattern? Anne Keothavong is now the captain (the fact was unveiled in November), and today she leads an amazing team for the Fed Cup 2017 playoffs in Estonia. Johanna Konta, the No 1 female tennis player in Great Britain, is the main inclusion. She won her 1st-round match at the Sydney International overnight.

Heather Watson, British No. 2, will also play on the field and she will back Johanna Konta. GB made it out of the February playoffs twice in the past - every time under the captaincy of Judy Murray (she was appointed in 2011). Murray's team didn't make it to Europe and Africa Group 1 since in those times Argentina and Sweden played on their home fields and had home advantage.

In 2017, Anne Keothavong and her team definitely have some chances of going further in the competition, but the odds are correlated with Konta and her physical status. In other words, she must be both available and fit.

On paper, we at OddsDigger believe that Great Britain's team looks very well-placed to go past the playoffs, even though there are some strong teams out there, including Serbia, Portugal, and Poland.

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