10 April 2012 | Tennis Victoria

Samantha Stosur, Jarmila Gajdosova, Casey Dellacqua and Olivia Rogowska will represent Australia at the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Play-off tie against Germany on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 April 2012.

Rogowska will join the Australian team for the first time, replacing Jelena Dokic who competed in the team’s previous tie against Switzerland in February.

Australian Fed Cup Captain David Taylor said that the tie in Germany will be tough but the girls will be up for the challenge.

“Germany is fortunate to be enjoying a renaissance in women’s tennis,” Taylor said.

“They have four top 20 players and it is the strongest team Australia could have drawn.

“The venue has already sold out and the Germans, like us, have high expectations. We look forward to the challenge.

“A lot of our chances for success will be with our No.1 reaching top form. Sam has done well at this venue in the past losing in a close final to Justine Henin in 2010 and losing a very close match in the semifinals last year to Germany’s No.2 Julia Goerges. Sam is one of the best claycourt players in women’s tennis at the moment and is capable of leading our team to what would be a memorable victory.

“Ironically one of the last times our two countries met, in 1993, our Australian Fed Cup Coach, Nicole Bradtke, famously upset the then No.1 Steffi Graf for one of Australia’s finest Fed Cup victories.  There is no reason why we cannot do this again.

“It was a difficult decision to choose a team for this tie as we have four girls who are very closely ranked which is a nice problem to have.

“Nicole and I decided to go with Olivia Rogowska, who will be making her debut for Australia, as a reward for her big ranking improvement in the past six months and her performances at the WTA level during the Australian summer. She has also proven herself on clay with a win over Russian star Maria Kirilenko at Roland Garros.

“Casey has again gained selection for her continued ranking rise in 2012 and she and Sam have formed a doubles partnership recently on the WTA tour that could prove critical in this tie.

“Sam and Jarmila continue to remain our top two ranked singles players.”

Australia will play Germany in their World Group Play-off tie at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart on clay. This is the home venue for a WTA Premier event held the following week, from 23 to 29 April.

Australia and Germany have met previously on 11 different occasions with Australia leading the head-to-heads 7-4. The last time the two teams met was in 2001 when Germany won 3-0 in Madrid, Spain, on clay.

Germany has four players in the top 20, Andrea Petkovic (No.11), Sabine Lisicki (No.13), Angelique Kerber (No.15) and Julia Goerges (No.16). They are due to name their Fed Cup team in the next few days.

The German Fed Cup team lost 4-1 to the Czech Republic in Stuttgart in February in their World Group tie while Australia won 4-1 in Fribourg, Switzerland in their Fed Cup World Group II tie.

The play-offs are taking place alongside the World Group semifinals with promotion and relegation decided for the 2013 Fed Cup season.

Australia was relegated to World Group II after they lost 3-2 to Ukraine in their Fed Cup World Group Play-off in Melbourne this time last year. They need to defeat Germany to return to the World Group in 2013.