Fed Cup captains happy with early deadlock at La Jolla

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

LA JOLLA, California (Reuters) - United States Fed Cup captain Zina Garrison and her opposite number Barbara Rittner of Germany were happy to end Saturday's opening singles deadlocked at 1-1 in their world group first round tie.

German teenager Sabine Lisicki put Germany ahead by stunning former world number one Lindsay Davenport 6-1 7-5 in the opening match before Fed Cup debutant Ashley Harkleroad levelled the scores with a 6-1 6-3 crushing of Tatjana Malek.

"Being 2-0 up would have been great but I've done enough of these to know anything can happen," Garrison told reporters after Harkleroad breezed through to victory in under an hour at La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club.

"There are players who play well for their country, and it doesn't matter what you do or who they're playing against. They go out and play very tough for their country.

"Ashley possibly could be one of those players. They get up for their matches. So going into tomorrow, I'm happy that we're 1-1. I'm just happy we get to play."

Rittner, who played in the Fed Cup for 11 years, agreed.

"We've always said if we were 1-1 after the first day, that's fine," she said. "We had a great chance maybe to go up 2-0 and we didn't take it. So we'll see what's happening tomorrow."

Asked if Germany would change their strategy after ending the opening day on level terms, Rittner replied: "Tomorrow? No strategy.