Serena Goes “Baghdatis” While Venus Returns in Fed Cup
By Erik Gudris Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
(February 5
th, 2012) The final day of opening round action in the World Group of Fed Cup saw a little bit of everything including beatdowns, comebacks, group hugs and the use of the name Baghdatis as a verb in describing the demolition of a racquet.
Defending champions Czech Republic served noticed that they are still the team to beat as they posted an impressive 4-1 victory over a very deep German squad primarily based on the clutch performance once again from
Petra Kvitova who came back from a set down to defeat
Sabine Lisicki in the pivotal third rubber 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 keeping her perfect indoor record win streak intact. The Czechs will now take on Italy who barely scraped past upstart Ukraine 3-2 with
Flavia Pennetta and
Roberta Vinci clinching the final doubles match.
Russia’s march into semis got a little more complicated than they would have liked after
Maria Sharapova pulled out of her singles match due to suffering from a cold. Even though
Nadia Petrova replaced her, Petrova was no match for Carla Suarez Navarro who won in two quick sets. That left it up to Svetlana Kuznetsovato play the hero and when she went up 6-2, 4-1 on Silvia Soler-Espinosa, the semis appeared to be a formality.
But as she has done in the past, Kuznetsova lost the plot completely and through multiple errors allowed the Spainard to win the second set. After a tight third set, the Russian finally broke at 4-3 allowing her to serve out the match and the tie 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Russia will now meet Serbia who edged past Belgium 3-2.
In World Group II play, with
Victoria Azarenka unable to play due to a lower back injury, it was up to
Anastasia Yakimova of Belarus to stop
Serena Williams from clinching the tie for the U.S. And though she was a heavy underdog, Yakimova, with her unorthodox loopy groundstroke play along with a very sluggish start from Williams once again, allowed Yakimova to claim the first set 7-5. Angry with her sub-par performance, Williams on the changeover went “Baghdatis” on a racquet as she cracked it on the concrete and threw it behind her all while coach Mary Joe Fernandez sat next to her on the bench.
But Serena lived up to her first name by calming herself down and allowing Yakimova only two games for the next two sets as Williams notched a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 win that sealed the victory for the U.S. After
Christina McHale drubbed Darya Kustova 6-0, 6-1, the only intrigue left was if
Venus Williams would indeed take the court in her scheduled doubles match with
Liezel Huber. Williams and Huber delighted fans by playing Kustova and Yakimova and went on to sweep the tie for the U.S. with a 6-1, 6-2 win.
When asked afterwards about the rest of her season, Venus Williams was noncommittal about when her next singles match might be but that playing in doubles was a real possibility for her the rest of the year.
Fed Cup returns to action in April when the World Group semis will take place along with the World Group II playoffs.