Impressively, Team USA was able to reach the Fed Cup Final without the legendary talents of Venus and Serena Williams.

In February, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Melanie Oudin, Christina McHale and Liezel Huber marched into Lieven, France and earned the World Group 1st-Round win on clay.

In April, Team USA hosted the Semifinal versus Russia in Birmingham, Alabama. In the 4th Rubber, Bethanie Mattek-Sands delivered a clutch win over Ekaterina Makarova to keep the tie alive, then teamed with Liezel Huber and advanced the team to its 28th Fed Cup Final.

In November, Team USA hosted again – this time in San Diego. It was a rematch of the previous year’s Fed Cup Final, where Italy defeated Team USA in Reggio Calabria. Once again, Italy’s Flavia Pennetta was simply too good. On Day-1 of the Final, Pennetta defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands, while Coco Vandeweghe fell to Francesca Schiavone. Melanie Oudin kept the tie alive in Sunday’s first match with Schiavone, but Pennetta downed Vandeweghe in straight-sets to give Italy’s its third Fed Cup title in five years. Five years later, we’d see two of Team Italy’s top talents face-off in the U.S. Open Final: Roberta Vinci and Flavia Pennetta.

While it didn’t work out for Team USA, the Final in San Diego was an absolute blast with the feisty Italians in town. We hosted the player party in the Crown Room at the world renowned Hotel del Coronado – featured in at least 12 Hollywood feature films, including 1959’s “Some Like it Hot” with Marilyn Monroe.

Again, without the Williams sisters, the ladies defeated Argentina at home — then the Czech Republic in Brno — to reach the 2009 Fed Cup Final versus Italy in Reggio Calabria.

The 1st-Round victory in Surprise, Arizona will always stick in my mind. It was my first introduction to the fearless tennis of Melanie Oudin. While Melanie lost her first rubber to Argentina’s Gisela Dulko, she kept the tie alive with a 3-set win in the 4th rubber, defeating Betina Jozami. Julie Ditty and Liezel Huber then sealed the victory in the deciding rubber.

Without Venus and Serena, the U.S. was given little chance of winning the tie versus Argentina. Melanie Oudin was clutch in the victory, and the win proved to be an insane confidence boost for the 17-year-old. That year, she’d go on to reach the Round of 16 at Wimbledon and the Quarterfinals of the US Open, where as a wild card, she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova, before falling to Caroline Wozniacki.

While Melanie has struggled to resurrect the remarkable rhythm she established in 2009, she did win the US Open Mixed Doubles title with partner Jack Sock in 2011; and remains one of my most poignant memories of working with the United States Fed Cup Team. There’s nothing like watching an underdog blossom into a legitimate contender.