What's happened during GB's 26-year World Group absence?
| Great Britain v Kazakhstan – Fed Cup World Group II play-off |
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| Venue: Copper Box Arena, London Dates: 20-21 April |
| Coverage: BBC website will have live text commentaries on all GB matches and you can listen to BBC Radio 5 Live commentary online |
Great Britain are bidding to end a 26-year wait for promotion to Fed Cup World Group II this weekend when they take on Kazakhstan.
There will be a best-of-five play-off at London’s Copper Box Arena for Britain, who are at this stage for the fifth time in eight years.
Each of those previous ties was played away from home and ended in defeat, keeping Britain in the third tier of women’s team tennis.
You’d have to go all the way back to 1993 to find the last time Britain were in the World Group.
Since then, there have been five UK prime ministers, 21 versions of the iPhone, and seven football World Cups.
“Five Live” was the UK’s number one at the time – a set of tracks performed by George Michael, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert.
But what else has happened since Britain dropped out of the World Group 26 years ago?
- Fed Cup play-off preview
- How well do you know GB’s opponents?
Three of Britain’s Fed Cup team have been born…
Take That have had 12 number one singles…
Roger Federer has won 20 Grand Slam titles…
The number of worldwide mobile phone subscriptions has increased…
There have been 11 Olympic tennis singles champions…
Average house prices have more than doubled…
And Manchester United have won 22 domestic trophies and three European titles…