Women Tennis Update – Fed Cup Sunday, February 10, 2013

Written by: Staff on 9th February 2013

Women Tennis Update - Fed Cup Sunday, February 10, 2013

epa03575789 Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova returns the ball to Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic during their Fed Cup World Group first round tennis match in Ostrava, Czech Republic, 09 February 2013. EPA/STRINGER |

Fed Cup

At least Petra Kvitova arrived. That was a good start. And, given that her Saturday opponent was ranked below #100, that was close to a guaranteed win. Kvitova beat Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova 7-6 6-3.

Then came the interesting match: Lucie Safarova against Samantha Stosur. It wasn’t decisive, quite — but we’d call that tie just about over. Safarova won in two tiebreaks. Stosur and Kvitova lead off in the reverse singles, so maybe Stosur will have the chance to redeem herself — but it’s hard to imagine Australia winning all three Sunday matches.

Sara Errani didn’t look too good in Paris. But that was on an indoor hardcourt. Here, she is playing on clay. Against an American. Little surprise that Jamie Hampton won only three games; Errani put Italy up 1-0 with a 6-2 6-1 victory. Unfortunately for Italy, Roberta Vinci struggled badly against Fed Cup rookie Varvara Lepchenko, who leveled the tie 2-6 6-4 7-5 after Vinci started cramping up in the final set. And that might even weaken Vinci for the doubles. Italy still looks like the favorites, but this was probably the best the Americans could hope for on day one, so perhaps it’s good news.

Kimiko Date-Krumm’s stamina at age 42 is amazing. But Maria Kirilenko has pretty good stamina, too. It took her more than two hours to win two sets, but Kirilenko put Russia up 1-0 against Japan with a 7-6 6-4 win.

Then came the shocker. Ayumi Morita beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-2. We’ve no idea what was wrong with Makarova, but something certainly seemed to be. And Kirilenko is tired. The only fresh player on the Russian team is Elena Vesnina. Suddenly what looked like a blowout is looking rather interesting.

Serbia looked to be pretty well out of it. Daniela Hantuchova has been in an awful funk this year, but she snapped out of it long enough to beat the top Serbian player in the tie, Bojana Jovanovski, 7-5 6-2. That put the tie in the hands of Dominika Cibulkova, the top player on either team. It looked open and shut. But she had to quit with while leading Vesna Dolonc 6-4 5-4. It was initially reported as cramps, but is now described as a muscle strain, so it’s not clear if she will be able to play on Sunday; she was carried from the court on a stretcher.

The World Group II tie between Belgium and Switzerland got off to a surprisingly tough start; Yanina Wickmayer beat Stefanie Voegele, but the score was 6-1 4-6 8-6. And the Swiss — with a little outside help — won the reverse singles; immigrant Romina Oprandi beat Kirsten Flipkens 6-3 6-3 to level the tie.

Things got even stranger in Argentina, where Paula Ormaechea — or, rather, the clay surface and the conditions — beat Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-3 6-0. And then the conditions and Florencia Molinero beat Swedish #1 Sofia Arvidsson 6-3 2-6 6-1. And the Swedes can hardly substitute for Arvidsson or Larsson; they don’t have any other WTA-level players!

Much-attenuated Germany got off to a good start against even-more-attenuated France; Sabine Lisicki opened the tie by beating Pauline Parmentier 7-5 7-5. Julia Goerges then beat Kristina Mladenovic 6-3 7-6, leaving the Germans one win away.

Experience clearly counted for Spain. 31-year-old Lourdes Dominguez Lino edged 18-year-old Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 5-7 6-2 8-6. 25-year-old Silvia Soler-Espinosa then gave Spain a 2-0 lead by beating Lesia Tsurenko (who is listed as being 23 but still looks like an infant) 7-5 6-4.

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Fed Cup, Jarmila Gajdosova, Lucie Safarova, Petra Kvitova, Samantha Stosur, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, women tennis update