The Slovaks defeated the USA 2: 1 in matches, only the doubles decided
yesterday 23:24
Prague, November 2 (TASR) – Slovak tennis players won in their second appearance at the last Billie-Jean King Cup tournament in Prague over the USA 2: 1 and remained in the game to advance to six.
In the doubles, the decisive point was taken care of by Viktória Kužmová and Tereza Mihalíková, who defeated the tandem Caroline Dolehide, CoCo Vandeweghe 6: 2, 6: 7 (5) and 12:10. The winner of the group and advancing among the elite quartet will definitely be decided by Wednesday’s final duel in the group between the USA and Spain.
The decisive doubles was started by a better Slovak duo, which broke the service of Vandeweghe in the first game and the break was subsequently confirmed by Kužmová and Mihalíková at 3: 1 in their favor. The Americans spoiled much more often than their opponents, and Dolehide lost service to zero in the seventh game. The Slovaks immediately used the third setball at Mihalík’s service. The second set started in the same way as the ten of the first layer of Vandeweghe’s service, the Slovak pair then followed 2: 0 and with a score of 3: 1 they had two more breakballs available.
The Americans averted them and in the sixth game, when Kužmová was handed over after her premiere break, they equalized to 3: 3. The fate of the second set was decided by an abbreviated game, the Americans turned from 1 February to 5: 2 and forced a supertai break. In it, the Slovak pair lost the Spanish 8: 4 and faced mečbal at 9:10, but the three balls won in a row meant the overall triumph of Kužmová and Mihalíková.
After losing in the opening duel with Spain 1: 2 on Monday, the Slovaks needed to beat the USA on Tuesday in order to stay in the game for promotion. Only the winners of four three-member groups make it to the elite quartet.
After the singles, the state of the USA-Slovakia match was 1: 1. He sent his team in a duel with the favorite of the leadership of Kužmová, who managed Shelby Rogers 6: 4 and 6: 4 in 86 minutes. In both sets she reversed the unfavorable score 1: 3. Anna Karolína Schmiedlová then lost to Danielle Collins 3: 6 and 2: 6 in 67 minutes in a duel of team units. Schmiedlová did not get a single breakball opportunity in the whole match.