Captain Anne Keothavong hoping to go one better than last year with Konta, Heather Watson, Katie Boulter, and Anna Smith in her side
Tuesday 6 February 2018 22:29, UK
Johanna Konta will spearhead Great Britain's latest Fed Cup promotion bid in the Estonian capital of Tallinn for the right to play off for the two places in next year's World Group II.
Anne Keothavong's side are seeking to improve on their 2017 campaign that saw them fall to Romania in the World Group II play-offs.
The captain will be relying on world No 11 Konta and her team-mates Heather Watson, Katie Boulter, and doubles specialist Anna Smith to lead them to victory as they take on hosts Estonia and Portugal in Pool B.
The Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I event has returned to Tallinn for a second year in a row as 14 teams compete in the four-day competition that begins on Wednesday at the indoor Tallink Tennis Centre.
The teams will face off in four round-robin groups for the right to play off for the two places in next year's World Group II.
Serbia, Georgia and Bulgaria make up Pool A while C and D each have four teams, respectively Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia and Sweden, and Poland, Turkey, Austria and Latvia.
Sweden and Slovenia earned promotion to Group I last year and are back in the higher level of competition in place of Israel and Bosnia-Herzegovina, who were relegated.
The round-robin format tournament will conclude on Saturday when the team topping pool A will play the winner of Pool D and the winner of Pool B will play the winner of Pool C. The two victorious teams will then challenge for spots in World Group II in April.
We will be covering the ATP ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Rio Open, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and ATP 500 Acapulco in February on www.skysports.com/tennis with news, previews, live blogs, reports and expert analysis.
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