Doubles partners Sam Stosur and Casey Dellacqua chasing Rio dream after Fed Cup showdown

FIRST, Sam Stosur is eyeing Fed Cup doubles success with partner Casey Dellacqua. Later, a rare Olympic feat only achieved by a handful of Australian athletes.

L-R Casey Dellacqua and Sam Stosur will play the two singles rubbers on day one. Fed Cup draw at MONA for the tie between Australia and Russia in Hobart.

FIRST, the Fed Cup doubles match. Later, the Rio Olympics.

That is the path Sam Stosur and Casey Dellacqua hope to tread in service of their country.

Stosur and Dellacqua won a decisive Fed Cup rubber in February against Slovakia and will be pressed into service against American opposition if the fifth doubles rubber is a winner-takes-all affair against the United States.

Stosur, 32, is set to join the elite ranks of Australians to have been four-time Olympians and wants to play doubles with Dellacqua, her friend of 15 years, as well as singles in Rio de Janeiro in August.

Since their success in Slovakia, which was Dellacqua’s first competitive match after a four-month lay-off because of concussion, they have contested three top-level tournaments as a doubles pairing.

The Australians have had some tough draws, bowing out to highly seeded pairs in the early rounds at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston, but with the Rio Games looming, both see the experience as valuable and worth continuing.

Olympic qualification in singles is done on WTA ranking, meaning Stosur and Daria Gavriliova, both in the top 40, will make the entry cut-off in June.

“It (making a fourth Olympic team) shows how long I’ve been playing. To be hopefully part of another one and mingling with the other athletes is an experience you can’t compare to anything else,’’ Stosur said.

Stosur is ready to play in three Fed Cup rubbers again and said a win last month over her day-one singles opponent Christina McHale in the United States gave her recent knowledge and confidence.

Casey Dellacqua and Sam Stosur will play doubles against the US.

“I was down in the third set then, so it gives me some comfort that I came back from deficit,’’ she said.

“It was a totally different surface though, a bouncy outdoor hardcourt (in the US), compared to here (a slower temporary claycourt.’’

Dellacqua, the obvious doubles teammate for Stosur in Tennis Australia’s Olympics nominations, is ranked No.6 in the world in doubles.

“Sam is a great player and I admire her,’’ Dellacqua said. “She does a lot for women’s tennis and I have a lot of respect for her and I know she does for me.

“Hopefully we can play some doubles and even leading into the Olympics play a bit more.’’

Fed Cup rules, which play the doubles match in the fifth and final rubber rather than the third, as in Davis Cup, make doubles less of a factor.

The American doubles opponents will be CoCo Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who won a WTA title last month in the US.

“They can change their selections, so I’ll be ready to play Christina (on day-one), but knowing I have to be ready to play any of their players.’’