Belarus at the 2002 Federation Cup

The Federation Cup started in 1963 as a tournament between United States and Great Britain. It is managed by the International Tennis Federation. The various participating countries played in the qualifying stage against themselves, resulting from which the entrants to the World group stage were decided. The 2002 championship was the 40th edition of the Federation Cup. Belarus started its international tennis career in 1994. A total of 83 nations participated in the tournament. Belarus at the 2002 Federation Cup was one of the average teams with high hopes and aspirations.

Belarus at the 2002 Federation Cup was placed in the Group I of the Europe/Africa zone. In the first round robin match against Greece, Belarus lost the contest by a close margin of 1-2. Next, Belarus was the winner against Ukraine by 2-1 in the second round robin match. The third qualifier again resulted in the Belarus loosing to Slovenia by 1-2. Therefore the consistency of performance was extremely diminished as Belarus could not pull off close clashes. Thus such a lackluster and inconsistent performance led to the departure of Belarus from the 2002 Federation Cup.

Belarus at the 2002 Federation Cup was placed in the Group I of the Europe/Africa zone with other nations like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Portugal and Turkey. Belarus won only one match in its qualifying stage against Ukraine. The remaining matches against Greece and Slovenia were thrown away by Belarus in a very lucid and careless manner. The fact that Belarus was close to the victory mark further depicts that they lacked experience and determination so as to face the mighty teams in the professional tennis. Thus Belarus was ousted from the 2002 tournament.