Melanie Oudin, Liezel Huber lead US Fed Cup team to face France in quarterfinals

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Oudin, Huber head US Fed Cup team to face France

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Melanie Oudin, Shenay Perry, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and top-ranked doubles player Liezel Huber are on the U.S. team that will play France in the Fed Cup quarterfinals next month.

U.S. captain Mary Joe Fernandez announced the roster Wednesday. The best-of-five series will be played on red clay in Lievin, France, on Feb. 6-7.

Neither Serena or Venus Williams is participating. Serena is ranked No. 1, and Venus is No. 6. But Serena said this week she and her sister will be in Florida that weekend — the Super Bowl is Feb. 7 in Miami — because they have an ownership stake in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

Oudin, of Marietta, Ga., is ranked 48th in singles; Perry, of Coral Springs, Fla., is ranked 107th; and Mattek-Sands, of Phoenix, is ranked 154th.

Mattek-Sands is expected to pair with Huber in doubles. It’s not known whether Perry or Mattek-Sands would join 2009 U.S. Open quarterfinalist Oudin in playing singles against France.

The French team announced Wednesday also is missing the country’s highest-ranked singles players, including No. 11 Marion Bartoli, No. 20 Virginie Razzano and No. 23 Aravane Rezai. Instead, the hosts will have Alize Cornet, Julie Coin, Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and Pauline Parmentier. Cornet has the best current ranking, at No. 51.

The U.S. lost to Italy in the 2009 Fed Cup final.