Czechs put France on Fed Cup brink as Russia leads
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DEFENDING champion Czech Republic took a commanding 2-0 lead over France in the Fed Cup World Group semifinals after Lucie Safarova and Petra Kvitova won the opening singles matches yesterday.
Safarova saved five match points before beating Caroline Garcia 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1 and Kvitova returned from almost a two-month break to defeat Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-4.
The hosts are one win away from the final against Germany or Russia in November to have a chance to win their fourth title in five years. France is playing in its first semis since 2007.
The reverse singles and doubles are planned for today.
Fourth-ranked Kvitova, who last played on February 26 in Doha, Qatar, before taking a rest, broke Mladenovic to go 5-4 up in the second set before serving out the match on the second match point.
Earlier, 13th-ranked Safarova converted her first match point with the 29th-ranked Garcia unable to return her serve on a fast indoor hardcourt at CEZ Arena in Ostrava.
“A wild match, isn’t it?” Safarova said. “I’m really happy I managed to come back.”
After winning the opening set, Garcia wasted five match points in the 10th game, allowing Safarova to stage a comeback after the Czech dominated the tiebreaker 7-1.
“Of course, I was nervous,” Safarova said about the match points.
“But I served well and got her under pressure. In tennis, you can always come back until the final point is over. I did all I could. My experience played a role.”
In Sochi, Svetlana Kuznetsova gave Russia a 1-0 lead over Germany in their Fed Cup World Group semifinals, beating Julia Goerges in straight sets.
Kuznetsova won 6-4, 6-4, taking advantage of erratic play by Goerges, who landed just 53 percent of her first serves and made 45 unforced errors against 27 for the Russian.
Kuznetsova, who becomes Russia’s most successful Fed Cup player ever with 27 wins, said she and Goerges had struggled with the slippery indoor clay surface at Sochi’s Adler Arena, which was last year’s Olympic speedskating venue.
“It was very difficult to move,” she said. “Maybe we didn’t look like we were moving very comfortably.”
Goerges said she had been “very nervous” to play the first match and acknowledged that her approach had been too aggressive, allowing errors into her game as she tried to finish points early.
Later yesterday, Germany’s Sabine Lisicki would try to level the score against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
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