World No.2 Iga Swiatek and No.38 Magda Linette sealed a victory for Poland over Spain in the first round of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, giving them an insurmountable 2-0 lead.
The best-of-three tie was postponed from Wednesday due to a severe weather alert in the region. Linette opened the festivities with a marathon 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-4 defeat of Sara Sorribes Tormo in 3 hours and 51 minutes. Swiatek closed out the win by overcoming a second-set wobble to beat Badosa 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1.
"I wouldn't say I pushed us to quarterfinals," Swiatek said on court. "Magda played an amazing match in the morning. We both did it. I'm really happy that we finally won a match at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals."
Poland advances to the quarterfinals to face 11-time champions the Czech Republic on Saturday. After Karolina Muchova's withdrawal ahead of the event, the Czech squad will be comprised of Linda Noskova, Marie Bouzkova, Sara Bejlek and Katerina Siniakova.
Swiatek and Badosa had exchanged victories in two previous encounters, both in 2021. Badosa scored a 6-3, 7-6(4) upset at the Tokyo Olympic Games, but Swiatek avenged that loss 7-5, 6-4 at the WTA Finals Guadalajara. Initially, there was little between them as their third meeting got underway. For the first six games, the pair delivered a succession of thrilling, high-octane baseline exchanges, and neither gave ground on serve.
After Badosa double faulted down break point at 3-2, Swiatek rattled off seven straight games in dominant fashion to take a 3-0 second-set lead. But Badosa found her form again to fight back and send the set to a tiebreak, which she edged 7-5.
"In the beginning, I felt like it was my best match since I'm back after US Open," Swiatek said, "but later on for sure she pushed me and there was a lot of pressure. The tiebreak, I knew every point mattered and I did one little mistake and unfortunately it went her way.
"But I knew I could come back in the third set and try to win it for Poland."
While holding serve was the norm in the first set, it proved to be a premium in the third. After exchanging three breaks of serve to open the decider, Swiatek snapped the streak to hold for a 3-1 lead. She extended her advantage to a double-break to lead 4-1 before the match was paused to attend to an ill spectator. On the resumption, Swiatek protected her lead to close out the win.
Earlier, Linette put Poland up 1-0 on the hosts by coming back from 3-0 down in the third set to earn her first career win over Sorribes Tormo. Linette had lost all four of her previous meetings with Sorribes Tormo, including at the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
"I hate playing Sara so much!" she said in her on-court interview. "I knew it was going to take me four hours, and it did."
Sorribes Tormo showed immense grit to the very last point. On Linette's first match point, Sorribes Tormo conjured a remarkable lob off a Linette drive volley that just dropped inside the court. However, the Pole continued to commit to coming forward, and solid net play finally saw her get over the line.
wtatennis.com
It's so good to see Iga one more time before the season ends. It's especially good to see her playing well and enjoying herself in a team atmosphere.
I was so disappointed when Iga didn't make it out of the group stage at WTA Finals this year (due to dumb round robin rules that give me a headache) watching her here is more than making up for it.
Her match with Linda Noskova tomorrow could be a lot of fun.
I can honestly say I've enjoyed this year's BJK Cup more than the ATP Finals, which have been a bit predictable and boring.
With Alcaraz out in the group stages due to a bad cold, I will be shocked if anyone other than Jannik Sinner wins it.
No comments:
Post a Comment