Italian team was short of Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, and world No.37 Roberta Vinci leading the weakened team wasn’t enough to make Italy closer to their third straight Fed Cup title. Italy lost the Fed Cup semifinal against Russia 5-0.
The withdrawals of the fourth-ranked Schiavone (she wanted to prepare for her French Open title defence) and the 20th-ranked Pennetta (absent with shoulder injury) provoked Vinci to criticize her compatriots.
“If they didn’t want to come it’s their problem,” said Vinci who lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-7(4) 6-1 and to Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-2 in the Fed Cup semifinals.
In the other semifinal, Czech Republic won the decisive doubles (Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova defeated Yanina Wickmayer and Kirsten Flipkens 6-4 6-4) and thus defeated Belgium 3-2.
Other scores:
In the other ties, Jelena Jankovic and Aleksandra Krunic completed a thrilling fightback to beat Slovaks Daniela Hantuchova and Magdalena Rybarikova 2-6 7-5 9-7, thus putting Serbia in the World Group in 2012. Germany will also be in the World Group, as Andrea Petkovic scored her first tie-clinching victory in Fed Cup.
Also, for the first time ever will the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group will be without France, as Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Lourdes Dominguez Lino won both their reverse singles matches for Spain on Sunday. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
Our Fed cup match against Slovakia was… little to say dramatic. First strange selection of players on court,then Ana’s injury, JJ’s though victory against Hantuchova, and then the doubles… 😀 At 1:5, I thought Oh, no, again those doubles (I have to admit, it’s our very weak side) and then after… I was crazy cheering up in the 3rd set, I gotta say thank God our team was serving 1st in last 2 matches in 3rd set… What a comeback 😀 Krunic is such a cool girl, without her fighting spirit we would deffinitely loose our last 2 doubles matches. She should get that WTA Heart award. 😀 I have to add, I am very impressed by Ana’s game at the moment, if she continues like this she’ll be a major threat at Roland Garros. Luckily, her injury isn’t serious, but I feel bad for the girl, she must be upset about these things, but we won afterall, which makes it all better.:) As for JJ, I still can’t figure out her form, it’s like she’s playing well, but it seems she doesn’t have idea how her game should look like at the moment. Sorry for the lenght, but it was a long day, and a lot to say. 😀
Maybe now after the flop, French fed cup captain is second-guessing his decision to leave world #12 Marion Bartoli off the team and go with players in which only one is ranked inside the top 50.
It was a bit frustrating that the great players were not able to help Italy win the semifinal match. They could have gotten their third Fed Cup title this season. http://www.tennisround.com
Oh what a blow for Italy! but we all expected it… I believe that we can’t blame Francesca for her choice, this trip on hard court in the middle of the clay season wasn’t ideal for anyone, and she has always given much for Italy as well as Flavia.
The only thing I would challenge are the convocations, Roberta is in a period of deep crisis, it would have been nice to follow the example of Serbia and call some young girl, was an excellent opportunity to gain experience, I know, was a semi-final, but in any case the idea was to hope for a miracle 😛
Serbian team: losing 2:6,1:6 and facing match points, and at the end winning: 1:6,7:5,9:7. What to say but- bitcin’ xDDD God, I love our drama queens. 😀
The best: Germany vs. USA – 5:0!!!!! I’ve been so pleased! Go Petko! Go Julia Görges! Go Sabine Lisicki! Go Anna-Lena Grönefeld! The Fed-Cup-Title-2011 is our!
Congats to the Serbians,I saw our team self-destruct in person and it was emotional but in a rather negative way. I shall write the vent about that later in the week.