Spaniards bounce Czechs to reach Fed Cup final

Spaniards bounce Czechs to reach Fed Cup final
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

LAS VEGAS, NOVEMBER 22: Spain reached the Fed Cup final for the ninth time in 12 years here on Tuesday, sealing a berth when fifth-ranked Conchita Martinez outlasted Kveta Hrdlickova of the Czech Republic in three sets.

Martinez claimed the error-filled clincher 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 after two hours and 34 minutes to send Spain against the winner of other semi-final between Belgium and the defending champion United States.

Number nine seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario had earlier defeated 17-year-old Czech prodigy Daja Bedanova 5-7 6-4 6-3 so Martinez’s victory over her 47th-ranked rival sealed the best-of-three semi-final before the concluding doubles match.

Spain seeks a sixth women’s team title in 10 years in abest-of-five final Friday and Saturday. The Americans seek to extend their record title total to 17 but must first beat Belgium on US captain Billie Jean King’s 57th birthday.

Martinez, who won her only prior match with Hrdlickova in 1998 at Warsaw on clay, had only 26 winners to 42 for Hrdlickova in the match but also made only 27 unforced errors to 57 for the Czech.

Sanchez rose to 43-17 in Fed Cup singles while fellow 28-year-old Martinez improved her Cup singles mark to 41-12, but not without a fight.

French Open runner-up Martinez, who won 50 matches and the Berlin title this year, lost her first service game of the third set and fell behind 3-0.

Martinez battled back, capturing the pivotal fifth game to get back on serve on her fifth break-point opportunity. But she blew the edge in the next game, giving Hrdlickova a break and a 4-2 lead with a netted forehand.

Back and forth they went, neither able to keep an edge. Hrdlickova gave back the break and Martinez responded by holding, breaking Hrdlickova at love on a forehand winner and finally winning when Hrdlickova hit a forehand volley long.In set two, Martinez took a 5-3 lead when Hrdlickova netted a backhand to surrender her third break of the set. But serving for the match, she lost at love, netting a backhand to give the Czech a third break to set up tie-break.In the tie-breaker, Martinez lost the last six points, the final three on backhands beyond the baseline.

In the first set, Martinez broke Hrdlickova twice for a 3-0 lead but lost her next two service games, the latter with a forehand lob long, to stand 3-3.Hrdlickova had a set point on Martinez’s serve in the 10th game but netted a forehand to squander the chance and netted another forehand to surrender a break in the 11th game.

Hrdlickova recovered with a forehand winner to break back and force a tie-breaker, but gave away four of the final five points on errors, losing the set on a netted forehand drop volley.

Three-time French Open winner Sanchez, who lost her lastfour WTA matches of the season, was tested in her first match against the 54th-ranked Cup singles debutante, a 17-year-old who won her first WTA title last month at Bratislava.Sanchez squandered a 5-3 lead in the first set before recovering to win in two hours and four minutes.

‘‘She was playing very well,’’ Sanchez said. ‘‘I should havewon the first set but I let her come back and got a little bit frustrated. But that helped me in the second set. At the end, I played like I was supposed to the whole match.’’

Sanchez broke Bedanova in the third game of the final set, withstood five deuces to hold in the sixth game and broke Bedanova at love in the final game.‘‘She made an early break. It was a stupid game for me,’’ Bedanova said. ‘‘She played well. She brings everything back.’’