"Every Fed Cup I'm playing, I'm nervous. Francesca played unbelievable tennis. I'm very happy I won."
That's what Petra Kvitova said after she won her Fed Cup match against Francesca Schiavone. Kvitova was down a break in both sets, but won 6-4, 7-6. The stats for the match are worth examining, by the way.
Kvitova's win put the Czech Republic back into the final, though the Czech Republic lost the fourth rubber (Errani def. Hlavackova). Italy had to retire during the doubles rubber because Flavia Pennetta injured her wrist again.
Kvitova's indoor win streak has now increased to 29 consecutive matches.
The Czech Republic's opponent in the final--which will be held at home--will be Serbia. This is the first time that Serbia has ever reached a Fed Cup final. The team went into today's rubbers tied 1-1 with Russia. Ana Ivanovic then defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and it was up to Jelena Jankovic to seal the big win. She did, though--toward the end--she made it hard for herself, giving up repeated game points. But she did defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-4. The dead doubles rubber was played, and Russia won it.
Here are the results for the World Group playoffs:
USA def. Ukraine, 5-0
Japan def. Belgium, 4-1
Slovak Republic def. Spain, 3-2
Australia def. Germany, 3-2
And the results for the World Group II playoffs:
France def. Slovenia, 5-0
Switzerland def. Belarus, 4-1
Sweden def. Great Britain, 4-1
Argentina def. China, 4-1
5 comments:
JJ: The Indefatigable Serb... a tennis folk hero in the making ;)
It's good to be Queen (Chaos).
Loving that JJ silenced some of the nay-sayers this weekend with good wins. Would like to see her translate this Fed Cup confidence into her singles game. 1st round JJ vs Wozniacki at Stuttgart will be interesting.
Sweden sadly proved a bridge too far for GB in their attempt to climb back up the rankings. Maybe a home tie would have helped. Wimbledon had been mooted as a venue in the event of that happening which I think would have been popular, and been something of a throwback to the old Wightman Cup days as well as more recent Davis Cup ties. A return to the days of neutral venues and little support as a consequence is a rather sad prospect. I wish they were all home and away ties as in the Davis Cup. Katharine UK
Katharine, I could not agree with you more.
rc--Ever hopeful....
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