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The German Fed Cup team that will take on Brazil in February will be without its top players Angelique Kerber and Julia Gorges. The tie will be held on February 7 and 8 in Florianopolis. The new Fed Cup team captain Rainer has nominated Laura Siegemund, Tatjana Maria, Anna-Lena Friedsam and Antonia Lottner, the German Tennis Federation announced on Tuesday.
Kerber, ranked No. 18 in the world, is not playing due to a thigh injury which also affected her at the Australian Open in Melbourne. The former World No. 1 was beaten by Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three sets in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Monday.
Gorges elected not to play this tie and had informed the team of her unavailability earlier on. Schüttler commented, "With these four players, we have a compact and motivated team that already has some experience in the Fed Cup.
I am convinced that we will survive the qualification and qualify for the finals in Budapest. Of course it's a shame that Angelique and Julia are not available, but with Angie the thigh injury has to heal completely." 31 year old Laura Siegemund, ranked No.
72 in the world, nominated for the fourth time and 87th ranked Tatjana Maria, playing for the 13th time, will be leading the team. There will be four singles and one doubles tie in the tie with all matches being in the best of three set format.
The matches will be held on Friday and Saturday. Germany and Brazil have faced each other three times in the Fed Cup, most recently the German team won 2-1 in Prague in 1986.