Cornet up against Li Na on debut

Alize Cornet will make her Fed Cup debut for France in the opening rubber of the 2008 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group tie against China in Beijing.

The 18-year-old was nominated to play at No. 2 for France this weekend and was drawn to face Li Na in the first of Saturday's two singles rubbers with Virginie Razzano taking on Peng Shuai in the second.

The full draw is as follows:
Li Na (CHN) v Alize Cornet (FRA)
Shuai Peng (CHN) v Virginie Razzano (FRA)
Li Na (CHN) v Virginie Razzano (FRA)
Shuai Peng (CHN) v Alize Cornet (FRA)
Zi Yan/Jie Zheng (CHN) v Nathalie Dechy/ Virginie Razzano (FRA)

French captain Georges Goven said that he had opted to give the youngster, “a chance to show her talent and how much she has progressed,” and that on balance she was probably the player with the best chance against Li.

With its top three players missing from the tie, Goven estimates France’s chances at around 40%, conceding that a full-strength Chinese team goes into the tie as a favourite. “It’s a headache weekend,”he joked.

Cornet has never previously met Li, who returned from six months out with a rib injury to capture the Gold Coast title in the first week of the 2008 season, showing the form which to a career-high ranking of No. 16 at the start of last year.

The same is true for the second singles between Peng and Razzano. The Frenchwoman was happy to playing second, conceding that it was probably better for the team her teammate Cornet to play first on her debut.

“What is more important is that I don’t get frustrated on court. If I play my best tennis, play my game and feel good on the court, then that’s good for me,” said Razzano, the French No.1 this weekend.

Razzano has won all three of her previous Fed Cup singles matches while Li has won her last nine so, if the two No. 1 players win their matches on Saturday as the rankings suggest they will, Sunday’s opening rubber should be an exciting affair, but this is Fed Cup and as Goven himself said, “anything can happen.”

“It will be interesting to see how the Chinese team deal with the pressure of playing at home with a strong image to defend ahead of the Olympics. We are under less pressure being so far away from home and we can benefit from that.”