On Saturday down in Australia the US will take on the Aussies in an attempt to rejoin the Fed Cup World Group in 2017 for the first time since 2014. In this stage in 2014 the US lost to France and to Italy in 2015 knocking them into World Group II. The team tasked with getting the US back to the World Group is Madison Keys, Christina McHale, Coco Vandeweghe, and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The US is missing all three of their top players in the world rankings (Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Sloane Stephens) but this group certainly is strong enough to get the win.

Things get started on Saturday with two singles matches. Keys will be taking on Daria Gavrilova with the American slightly higher ranked. These two have never met and a lot of pressure will be on Keys to start things off well for the US. The second match features McHale taking on Sam Stosur. Stosur has a significant advantage in the rankings and experience and is 4-0 against McHale. That’s why Keys’ match is so important as you’d certainly give Stosur the edge in match two and the US going down 2-0 would put them in huge trouble.