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Coach Ivo Van Aken Remains Careful on Possible Victory in Fed Cup November 7, 2001 De Standaard MADRID -- Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin have had a fabulous season behind them. They are 5th and 7th on the world ranking. The coming days they could wrap up the year with a country success. In the Fed Cup they start, being the highest ranked players, as favourites for the end victory. Coach Ivo Van Aken remains careful. "There are tasks for each day and yes, we want to beat each opponent." For this occasion, Clijsters and Henin get the company of Els Callens and Laurence Courtois, the doubles tandem that already have proved its efficiency and also now most probably will play the first matches. Coach Ivo Van Aken wants to spare the forces of his two top players, in order to keep them from being burned out at the beginning of their last mission, a possible final. -- So we may assume that Clijsters and Henin will take care of the singles, Callens and Courtois the doubles? Indeed, certainly for the first two matches, against Germany and Australia. After that, we will assess things again. I do not like to plan on forehand, but I don’t want to waste our strength before the heavy stuff is coming up. It is important that the girls are still fresh then. In between the last singles and the beginning of the doubles there is only a break of 30 minutes. -- Clijsters however would love to double. And also Henin proved earlier on that she is quite good at doubles. A problem of wealth? Indeed, there are several combinations possible. The annoying thing is that Kim and Justine never play together. I’ll do a test in the coming days to see what it would give, you never know. Both belong intrinsically to the best doubles players in the circuit. They could make a splendid pair. -- The matches are played on clay court. A whole adaptation after 4 months hard court? This is just madness. The policy states that the organiser may select the surface. I can accept this when it comes to a match between 2 countries, but not in a final. As of next year, the surface must be selected based on the surface that is used at that moment. In November this is hard court. -- Is that handicap not the same for everyone? Not really. Spain is the clay court land by excellence. There is no other match on something else. But all the international tournaments of the last months, also the Masters, were all played on hard, fast courts. Kim trained Monday afternoon on the surface for a while. So, when she took off, she left a pit in the bottom. The surface is that soft. -- However you can’t complain. The Americans are not coming, Russia moved to the other group and you can kick off against the Germans? The draw indeed is splendid for us. We can have an easy run into the key match for our group, the match against Spain. Germany is here without Huber and plays with Rittner and Lamade. Good athletes, but with all due respect, a bit too light for our two girls. And since Dokic turned her back on Australia, this country shouldn’t be a problem either. Spain for sure will be a hard one. Sanchez-Vicario and Martinez are not to be underestimated, certainly not on this slow surface and for their home crowd. We may not underestimate that factor. -- A final Belgium-France seems likely? That is possible, but honestly, I am not thinking of that yet. The absence of the USA makes me not say: this is our chance. We want to beat opponent by opponent. So we will arrive there as well. There are tasks for each day. The first one is: adapt to the clay court. The next one: how can I play the opponent. If we can succeed these tasks, the final can be ours. And yes, France seems to have the best cards. Mauresmo is not always consistent, but if she goes for it, she can handle our best and Testud has shown that she can be a real hard one. I estimate that France is stronger than Russia, although they also have a lot of quality.