Zina Garrison, tennis star, in a dispute with USTA over her departure from Fed Cup

Zina Garrison, the first black captain of the U.S. Fed Cup team, was not brought back to USTA as Fed Cup captain after going 5-5 over five seasons, losing in the semifinals four times and the quarterfinals once.

Now, according to Sports Illustrated, she’s in a dispute over the “departure.”

Garrison is the 18th U.S. Fed Cup captain since the competition began in 1963 and first African-American captain in the competition’s history. She replaced Billie Jean King as Fed Cup captain for the 2004 season.

Fed Cup is the premier team competition in women’s tennis, launched in 1963.The complete history of the Fed Cup can be found here.

The list of players who have competed in the Fed Cup is impressive. The website says,

“Many of the game’s all-time greats, along with the current crop of talents, have featured in the competition throughout its history. Names such as Billie-Jean King, Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis appear alongside many of today’s stars such as Venus and Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Amelie Mauresmo and Jelena Jankovic.”

Mary Joe Fernandez, runner-up in three Grand Slam singles tournaments and winner of two Grand Slam women’s doubles titles AND two Olympic gold medals, is supposed to take over in Garrison’s place in 2009.

As a side note, Black Tennis Pro’s is a GREAT site for information on African American men and women stars in the sport of tennis. They do an excellent job of providing equal coverage between genders, and I highly recommend you add their feed to your reader.