CASEY Dellacqua, Jessica Moore and Samantha Stosur are all set to descend on Perth next February after the city was announced as the host of the 2009 Asia/Oceania Zonal tennis Fed Cup.
The four-day tournament will showcase the top female players from 16 Asia Pacific countries and victory would give Australia the chance to climb out of the zonals and into the Fed Cup's top 16 teams.
After relegation from World Group II in 2007, Australia finished fourth in 2008 in Asia/Oceania Zone Group I and remains there for 2009.
Australia will compete in Group I against Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, Thailand and Uzbekistan.
Group II will be finalised closer to the tie date but the current countries listed are Hong Kong, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pacific Oceania, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkmenistan.
Australia, with seven Fed Cup titles to their name, ranks second only to the USA (17) but has not won a title since 1974.
Rennae Stubbs, Alicia Molik, Dellacqua and Moore represented Australia last year but Molik has since retired.
“The girls will put on an excellent show as they will really want to win in order to make it to the World Group II Playoffs,” Fed Cup captain David Taylor said.
“The team was really unlucky last year. We were struck down by injuries to leading players at a time when it looked like we had a fantastic chance of breaking back into the World Group II pool.”
The event will be held at the State Tennis Centre in Burswood from February 4-7.
Meanwhile, Germany have become the fourth country confirmed for January's Hopman Cup in Perth, with former world No.4 Nicolas Kiefer set to partner rising star Sabine Lisicki.
Kiefer, currently ranked 25 in the world, recently knocked over top-10 players James Blake and Nikolay Davydenko at the Canadian Masters Series.
He also defeated Frenchman Gilles Simon and Mardy Fish en route to the final, which he lost to world No.1 Rafael Nadal.
Lisicki, 19, has surged up the rankings to 64 this year and showed her potential at the Australian Open, where she defeated then world No.16 Dinara Safina, who has since climbed to third in the rankings.
Germany joins France (Alize Cornet and Simon), Australia (Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt) and Russia (Safina and Marat Safin) in the eight nation field.
The tournament takes place from January 3-9.
The four-day tournament will showcase the top female players from 16 Asia Pacific countries and victory would give Australia the chance to climb out of the zonals and into the Fed Cup's top 16 teams.
After relegation from World Group II in 2007, Australia finished fourth in 2008 in Asia/Oceania Zone Group I and remains there for 2009.
Australia will compete in Group I against Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, Thailand and Uzbekistan.
Group II will be finalised closer to the tie date but the current countries listed are Hong Kong, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pacific Oceania, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkmenistan.
Australia, with seven Fed Cup titles to their name, ranks second only to the USA (17) but has not won a title since 1974.
Rennae Stubbs, Alicia Molik, Dellacqua and Moore represented Australia last year but Molik has since retired.
“The girls will put on an excellent show as they will really want to win in order to make it to the World Group II Playoffs,” Fed Cup captain David Taylor said.
“The team was really unlucky last year. We were struck down by injuries to leading players at a time when it looked like we had a fantastic chance of breaking back into the World Group II pool.”
The event will be held at the State Tennis Centre in Burswood from February 4-7.
Meanwhile, Germany have become the fourth country confirmed for January's Hopman Cup in Perth, with former world No.4 Nicolas Kiefer set to partner rising star Sabine Lisicki.
Kiefer, currently ranked 25 in the world, recently knocked over top-10 players James Blake and Nikolay Davydenko at the Canadian Masters Series.
He also defeated Frenchman Gilles Simon and Mardy Fish en route to the final, which he lost to world No.1 Rafael Nadal.
Lisicki, 19, has surged up the rankings to 64 this year and showed her potential at the Australian Open, where she defeated then world No.16 Dinara Safina, who has since climbed to third in the rankings.
Germany joins France (Alize Cornet and Simon), Australia (Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt) and Russia (Safina and Marat Safin) in the eight nation field.
The tournament takes place from January 3-9.
