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By Erik Gudris | Saturday, February 8, 2014

 

Andrea Petkovic of Germany saved a match point as she upset Dominika Cibulkova on a busy day of Fed Cup action.

Photo Credit: Corleve

Andrea Petkovic fought off a match point before securing one of the best wins of her season against Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova in Fed Cup.

The opening singles rubber between Germany and the Slovak Republic in Bratislava pitted Petkovic against Cibulkova. Buoyed by the local support, Cibulkova took the opening set 6-2.

With the second set ending up in a tiebreak, it was Petkovic who blew five set points and then found herself down a match point. Petkovic rallied to take the set and soon earned a break lead in the third.

Petkovic eventually powered past Cibulkova 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 to the delight of her German team.

"It was so emotional and so exciting, I'm just so happy it's over. Such an emotional journey for me, second set tie-break totally crazy, everything up, down," Petkovic told FedCup.com "I felt like in the first set I wasn't playing that bad, but Domi was just playing so aggressively, I had trouble stepping in. So I tried to be more aggressive, and I'm just really happy that I somehow managed to do that."

Angelique Kerber stumbled with a slow start in the second singles rubber versus Daniela Hantuchova. But after taking the first set tiebreak, Kerber rolled to a convincing 7-6(9), 6-1 victory.

Germany now leads Slovakia 2-0 heading into Sunday.

Spain Takes Lead in Rain Plagued Tie Against Czechs

A lengthy rain delay prolonged the start of the tie between Spain and the Czech Republic in Seville. Once the skies cleared, Carla Suarez Navarro completed a 6-1 6-4 win over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

Fading light denied the start of the second singles rubber that will be contested on Sunday.

Bencic Makes Winning Fed Cup Debut Versus France

In World Group II round play, 16 year old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland made a winning Fed Cup debut against France's No. 1 Alize Cornet. After taking the first set, Bencic soon held a 5-3 lead. But Cornet rallied against a nervous looking Bencic and came within points of leveling the set. Bencic held on though and served out the 7-5, 6-4 victory.

France and Switzerland are now tied at 1-1 in their tie.

 

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