Paris: Serena Williams enters her fourth decade as a Fed Cup player with the United States on Friday and Saturday as the 2020 qualifiers get under way. The 38-year-old icon teams with newly-crowned Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and teenage star Coco Gauff as the US tackle Latvia in Everett, Washington. In total, there are eight ties with the winners earning places in the new-look Fed Cup finals in Budapest from April 15-17 where 2019 champions France, runners-up Australia, hosts Hungary and wildcard Czech Republic will be waiting. AFP Sports looks at three talking points ahead of this week's qualifiers:

Serena's senior service -- It was back in 1999 that Serena Williams made her Fed Cup debut in a semi-final win over Italy. Teammate Sofia Kenin was just eight months old while Coco Gauff was still almost five years away from being born. Williams has a 100 percent record in singles in the Fed Cup, winning 13 out of 13 rubbers. However, despite her longevity, her relationship with the tournament has been very much on-off, playing only in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018. Kenin, now the top-ranked US player at seven in the world after her stunning Grand Slam breakthrough in Melbourne, has a Fed Cup singles record of 1-3 while 15-year-old Gauff has yet to make her debut.