By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, November 15, 2015
Maria Sharapova stopped Petra Kvitova, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, to put Russia one win away from its first Fed Cup championship since 2008.
Photo credit: Paul Zimmer/Fed Cup
Tapping her clenched fist against her thigh, Maria Sharapova was keeping her own internal beat of intensity amid the drums, horns and sing-song chants from the Czech faithful reverberating throughout the O2 Arena in Prague.
Petra Kvitova and the home crowd muted the Russian for a set and a half.
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A feisty Sharapova answered with disarming determination.
Sharapova reeled off five consecutives games to close a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over the Czech No. 1 and put Russia one win away from its first Fed Cup championship since 2008.
Playing just her fourth Fed Cup match, Karolina Pliskova defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-3, 6-4, in 95 minutes to draw the defending champion even with Russia, 2-2.
The Fed Cup final will be decided on the doubles court.
Russia's Elena Vesnina and Pavlyuchenkova, inserted by captain Anastasia Myskina as a sub for Ekaterina Makarova, will play Pliskova and Barbora Strycova in the decisive doubles match. It is Pliskova's Fed Cup doubles debut.
A day after she defeated Pliskova to level the tie, Sharapova handed Kvitova her first Fed Cup defeat on home soil in three years, snapping her nine-match home winning streak. It was Kvitova's first home loss since former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic beat her in straight sets on the same court in the 2012 final.
Playing her first Fed Cup final, Sharapova started slowly. She withstood a storm of winners from her opponent, who was one point away from serving for the match when she held a one-set, 4-3 lead. Standing firm, Sharapova grew stronger as the match progressed: She won 16 of 19 points played on her serve in the final set.
Ultimately, Sharapova's consistency, intensity and commitment to the fight wore the two-time Wimbledon winner down.
"I thought Petra played unbelievable in the first set," Sharapova said afterward. "She was so aggressive. I just didn't have momentum in the first set. In the third set, I just felt like I was the fresher one."
Varying the location of her drives and injecting additional pace at the right times, Kvitova gave Sharapova little to attack at the start.
Commanding on serve against one of the game's most dangerous returners, the left-hander permitted just four points in her four service games. A rattled Sharapova sent a double fault deep to face triple set point. When the Russian whacked a forehand swing volley into net, Kvitova closed the first set with her second break.
Staving off a couple of break points, the Czech No. 1 worked through her most demanding service game of the match to start the second set.
Facing double break point, a resourceful Sharapova pulled out the rare left-handed lob volley to extend the point, scraping out a wild all-court point. She saved the second break point with a serve winner. But Kvitova cracked another biting return for a third break point.
Sharapova saved four break points in all before carving a clever drop shot for game point. A backhand on the line finally finished a demanding 10-and-a-half minute game as Sharapova held for 1-all.
Blasting a return right down the middle to handcuff her opponent, Sharapova earned triple break point in the fifth game. When Kvitova ballooned a forehand approach beyond the baseline, Sharapova scored her first break for 3-2.
The lead was short-lived. A timid drop shot attempt from Sharapova expired in the middle of the net gifting back the break at love.
Fed Cup forces Kvitova to put a premium on each point. She showed it with a tremendous fight in the seventh game. Fighting off a couple of break points, including zapping a brilliant running forehand down the line on the first and jolting a backhand winner on the second, Kvitova stood tall during an 11-and-a-half minute game holding for 4-3.
A resolute Sharapova showed stiff resistance of her own denying a break point to level.
In the ninth game, Kvitova lost the range on serve squandering a 40-15 with a pair of double faults. Sharapova hammered successive returns breaking again with a clenched fist for 5-4.
Swinging with conviction, Sharapova slid a forehand winner down the line closing her most convincing hold of the set at love to level the match.
"The second set could go either way and unfortunately it didn't go mine," said Kvitova. "I guess that's what decided the rubber."
Neither woman was willing to give up much ground behind the baseline in the decider. They went toe-to-toe trading drives down the middle until Kvitova blinked netting a backhand. The Czech put another flat backhand into net as Sharapova scored the first break for 3-2.
Sensing the world No. 6 was tiring, Sharapova slammed a series of heavy returns for triple break point. Kvitova dumped her eighth double fault to drop serve again, hanging her head at the 2-5 deficit.
An empowered Sharapova snapped a forehand winner closing out a two hour, 33-minute match at love. Thrusting both arms in air, Sharapova completed the most crucial Fed Cup match of her career with a winning smile.
"It's never over for me until we play the last point," said Sharapova, who squandered a 5-1 second-set lead falling to Kvitova in the WTA Finals semis in Singapore earlier this month. "I don't care where I'm playing or who I'm against. This is one of the few competitions where you're not playing for yourself. The team was so supportive. Every time I would look over they were standing up. That's the meaning of the event."