Tennis News

LUCERNE, Switzerland – Barbora Strycova will begin the Czech Republic’s bid to reach a third consecutive Fed Cup final when she takes on Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky on Saturday afternoon.

With the lynchpin of his all-conquering side, Petra Kvitova, absent, Petr Pala will look to Strycova and Karolina Pliskova to pave the way to yet another victory. Both players have been part of the Czech set-up for several years now and even teamed up for the decisive doubles victory in last year’s final against Russia.

Although Strycova has tasted defeat in her last three singles rubbers, she will take comfort in her fine record against her opening day foe; in three career meetings against Bacsinszky, Strycova has never conceded a set, winning the most recent of these, at last year’s US Open, for the loss of just five games.

“I don’t know if it’s a huge confidence [boost] but it is a little bit because last year I played her,” Strycova said. “The other two matches were many years ago so I don’t count that. It’s going to be a different match tomorrow because the whole crowd are going to push her to play her best tennis. I have to be ready for that.”

Pliskova, meanwhile, takes a near-perfect Fed Cup record into her singles meeting with World No.129 Viktorija Golubic. In eight Fed Cup matches, Pliskova’s sole defeat came at the hands of Maria Sharapova, and in February’s first-round tussle with Romania she dealt with the contrasting challenges of Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu before claiming the crucial third point alongside Strycova in doubles.

Eight hundred kilometers away, in Trélazé, France will play host to the Netherlands in the weekend’s other semifinal. Despite their impressive victory over Russia in the previous round, the Netherlands will start as underdogs against a strong French side attempting to reach its first final since 2005.

French captain Amélie Mauresmo has elected to open the tie with Caroline Garcia, who will face Dutch No.1 Kiki Bertens. Garcia sits over 50 places higher in the rankings than Bertens, and the gap in the second singles rubber is even wider, pitting World No.28 Kristina Mladenovic against No.139 Richel Hogenkamp.

After their heroics in Moscow, Mauresmo is wary of looking past the Dutch: “It [the Dutch winning in Moscow] was definitely a surprise and it keeps us on our toes,” Mauresmo said.

Mauresmo’s team also includes Alizé Cornet and the in-form Pauline Parmentier, who are scheduled to play together in Sunday’s doubles. “I’m very lucky in this tie,” Mauresmo added. “In some ties I had easier choices to make. The four girls came into this week either with a lot of wins behind them, great confidence on the surface or coming out of doubles wins.”

BOGOTA, Colombia – No.5 seed Irina Falconi captured her first WTA title in historic fashion, becoming the first American woman to win the Claro Open Colsanitas as she recovered from a break down in the final set to defeat Sílvia Soler-Espinosa, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

Playing in her first career WTA final, Falconi had already earned the biggest win over the week when she took out No.4 seed Lara Arruabarrena in the semifinals, and looked on course for a seamless victory when she took the first set. But Soler-Espinosa, who had only won one WTA main draw match before Bogota, wouldn’t go down without a fight, leveling the match with a 6-2 set of her own and engineering an early break in the decider.

Six points from defeat down 3-4, 0-30, Falconi earned the break back and broke serve to win the title on her third championship point.

Starting the week at No.92, Falconi is tentatively set to return to the Top 70, close to her career-high ranking of No.64.

More to come…

STUTTGART, Germany – Petra Kvitova made a flawless start to her clay court campaign, dismissing Louisa Chirico in 55 one-sided minutes to secure a spot in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

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In recent years, Stuttgart has not been the happiest of hunting grounds for Kvitova, who has stumbled at the first hurdle on her past two visits. This time, though, she delivered a near-perfect performance, dishing out a 6-0, 6-0 defeat to set up a meeting with Monica Niculescu or Caroline Garcia.

A display decorated with 29 winners – and offset by just 11 unforced errors – began with a salvo of thumping groundstrokes and a quick-fire hold. In the next game the No.5 seed displayed the other side of her game, a beautifully disguised drop shot leaving Chirico wrong-footed and an immediate break behind.

Chirico came close to getting on the scoreboard on several occasions, but each time she threatened to do so, Kvitova found the perfect response. The final stand came at 3-0 in the second set, Kvitova having the final say in a 10-minute game Kvitova thanks to another delightful touch around the net.

Moments later she put the American out of her misery, skipping around a second serve to unleash one final winner.

More to follow…