THE Czech Republic is in prime position for a second straight Fed Cup title with Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova making a winning start against Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic on Saturday.
THE Czech Republic is in prime position for a second straight Fed Cup title with Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova making a winning start against Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic on Saturday.
Safarova beat Ivanovic 6-4, 6-3 in somewhat of an upset and then after a slow start, Kvitova got rolling to end up beating Jankovic 6-4, 6-1 at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.
The final will now continue on Sunday in the reverse singles with Kvitova first up against Ivanovic, and then if needed Safarova to play Jankovic.
Serbia will need to win both singles clashes to force a deciding doubles that is scheduled to see the Czech Republic's Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka take on Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski and Aleksandra Krunic.
The Czechs have three opportunities to secure back-to-back Fed Cup titles with Serbia needing to win all three rubbers to become champions for the first time.
While Serbia is searching for its first Fed Cup title to go with the men's Davis Cup win of 2010, the team of Ivanovic and Jankovic are both former world No. 1s even if Ivanovic last was back in 2008 and Jankovic in 2009.
Even if their rankings had slipped to No. 12 and 22 respectively, the Serbian pair still took confidence into their singles matches with the world No. 17 Safarova and the No. 8 ranked Kvitova, but with a raucous home crowd backing them the Czech pair proved too strong.
The final began with Safarova needing an hour and 41 minutes to sink world No. 12 Ivanovic on the hardcourt of Prague's O2 Arena.
Ivanovic never found the pace to match her left-handed rival making 32 unforced errors against Safarova's 18. Ivanovic was broken twice in both sets, letting Safarova improve her head-to-head winning streak to four victories.
In the second rubber, Jankovic made a strong start to the first set opening up a 4-2 advantage and then was serving to go up 5-3 and put plenty of pressure on Kvitova, but the 2011 Wimbledon champion hit back hard.
Kvitova went on to win the next three games to force Jankovic to serve to stay in the set down 4-5, and the Serbian couldn’t do it with Kvitova claiming the set 6-4 in 45 minutes.
Kvitova then completely dominated the second set racing to a 5-0 lead, giving her a remarkable run of nine straight games, before winning the set 6-1.
Despite not having the year she hoped in 2012 after a blistering end to 2011, and coming into the Fed Cup final suffering a bout of bronchitis, Kvitova was delighted with her win over a former world No. 1 to put the Czechs up two rubbers to nil.
"That's unbelievable that I stood on the court and I tried my best. From the beginning it was tough and it took some time to prepare for this, and actually I am surprised with how I played," Kvitova said.
"I was down 2-4 and then I won I don’t know how many games straight, but I felt very fortunate because I didn’t know what I could expect from myself out on the court from the beginning.
"She played so well early in that first set and didn’t have any mistakes, but I knew that some chances would come and I had to wait for it. They came and it was nice that I had some things to do, and I did it so that's why I improved in this match.
"It's really nice to play here in front of a full crowd at home and it was very nice every moment out on the court, and now I really want to play tomorrow to help us win."
