No Scheepers for Fed Cup

Johannesburg - The South African Fed Cup team named on Friday excluded top-ranked player Chani Scheepers who is unavailable for the next tie.

Captain Earl Grainger named his team to play in the Euro Africa Group 2 tournament in Lithuania from April 16-19.

Although Scheepers had committed to being part of the Fed Cup squad, she had other commitments which clashed with the team event.

"Chani told me that she had a lot of world ranking points to defend in April and in order to maintain and improve her ranking she would not be available," Grainger said in a statement on Friday.

"Unfortunately the Fed Cup in Euro Africa Group 2 is played over a full week and clashes with a tournament in Malaysia and the qualifying of the Porche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

"Both these tournaments are also clay court events and Chani would be in full clay court preparation at that stage."

The Fed Cup will be played on indoor hard court at the Siauliai Tennis School in Siauliai, Lithuania.

"I am happy with the players selected. We have some experience in Chanel Simmonds and Natalie Grandin. Up and coming players Madrie le Roux and Natasha Fourouclas both have won titles recently on the Futures circuit."

Team:

Chanel Simmonds (singles 214; 256 doubles)
Madrie le Roux (singles 605; 676 doubles)
Natasha Fourouclas (singles 656; doubles 1237)
Natalie Grandin (singles 758; 110 doubles)