In the first year I only had Emily when the first round of Fed Cup play occurred, and of course she was not selected. France lost in the first round and was relegated to the secondary pool. In the second year there was one girl I managed who was selected for doubles. She did her job, but we were swept in singles and were unable to climb out of the secondary pool. In the first two rounds of the third year all of the spots were filled by my players, and we won 4-1 in each round. By the semi-final round a computer player decided it was in her interest to get her name in the paper, so she replaced one of my singles players, but the result was the same (France wins 4-1), placing us in the finals.
It was with great anticipation that I went to the schedule to sign my girls up for the finals, only to find that it was too late! Note that I did not wait until the week after the semifinals, but tried to do so while still basking in the afterglow of our victory. I realize that there is a mandatory 'black out' period for signing up which extends some time into the future, so that's why I'm not calling this a bug.
However, there are times when players are summoned summarily to attend tournaments for which they did not sign up. In the next version of TEM I would like to see the Federation/Davis Cups treated similarly. I know that attendance for these events cannot be made mandatory, but on the week that a Cup round is held (or the week before?) invitations could be sent out. To use this specific case as an example: The computer selects France's opponents as per the usual procedure. Then an invitation goes out to the best-ranking French singles player (Bouvier - 2). She accepts or declines. Then an invitation goes to the next-best (Pierce - 6), who is a computer player, so the program decides for her. This continues until two singles players have accepted. Repeat for doubles.
