Fed Cup World Group play-off draws announced

The world of Fed and Davis Cup draws is a perplexing one. Various things can happen in various ways that are to do with various acts of wizardry and arithmetic to determine who plays whom and where they do it. But like every good drama it all works out in the end, and this is apparently it. Yes, after much deliberation, hocus-pockery and (probably) some balls placed randomly in a hat, the ITF has announced the play-off fixtures for spots in the 2017 World Group and World Group II.

The draw is below, and there’s even a key below that to explain what everything means (told you it was complicated):

World Group Play-offs
Russia [s] [c] [*] v Belarus
Spain [c] v Italy [s]
Romania [c] [*] v Germany [s]
Australia [s] [c] [*] v USA

World Group II Play-offs
Serbia [s] [c] v Belgium
Slovakia [c] v Canada [s]
Poland [s] [c] [*] v Chinese Taipei
Ukraine [c] v Argentina [s]

What those letters and asterisks mean:
[s] = seed
[c] = choice of ground
[*] = choice of ground decided by lot

The seeds were based on the new ITF Fed Cup Nations Ranking of 8 February.

According to the ITF, ‘the 2016 World Group and World Group II play-offs will take place alongside the World Group semifinals on 16-17 April. In the semifinals, Switzerland will be at home to Czech Republic, and France will be at home to Netherlands.’