The Czech Republic defended their Fed Cup title on Sunday with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Russia.
Karolina Pliskova won her singles match and then returned to the court to help secure victory in the deciding doubles.
The Czechs, who claimed their fourth Fed Cup triumph in five years, fell behind 2-1 after Russia’s Maria Sharapova defeated the two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the opening match of the day having beaten Pliskova 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 in their singles match on Saturday.
Pliskova bounced back on Sunday by levelling the final with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova as the Czech’s service game and punishing forehand were too much for the Russian to handle.
The Czechs claimed the title in the doubles when Pliskova and Barbora Strycova bounced back after losing the first set 4-6 to Elena Vesnina and Pavlyuchenkova to take the next two 6-3, 6-2 in front of a boisterous home crowd at the O2 Arena in Prague.
“I was believing we could still do it and we did it at the end, but this crowd was unbelievable,” said Strycova. “They pushed us forward.”
No comments:
Post a Comment