TENNIS FED CUP 2015 – Maria Sharapova sealed the final point for Russia with a 6-1 7-5 win in the eagerly-awaited match over Agnieszka Radwanska in front of 15000 spectators in the Krakow Indoor Arena. Sharapova, who made her return to the Fed Cup after three years of absence, needed one hour and 44 minutes to beat her Polish rival and secure the spot in the semifinal. Diego Sanpaolo
Maria Sharapova sealed the final point for Russia with a 6-1 7-5 win in the eagerly-awaited match over Agnieszka Radwanska in front of 15000 spectators in the Krakow Indoor Arena. Sharapova, who made her return to the Fed Cup after three years of absence, needed one hour and 44 minutes to beat her Polish rival and secure the spot in the semifinal.
Sharapova broke serve at the start of the match and got two more breaks to seal the opening set in 33 minutes.
The Russian legend pulled away to 3-1 with another break in the fourth game of the second set. However, Radwanska broke for the first time on her sixth break point of the match as Sharapova was serving for the match at 5-3. Radwanska fended off two match points as she was serving to stay in the match and drew level to 5-all. Sharapova went down 15-30 in her next service game but she managed to hold serve and secured the win on her third match point.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to finish it off in the way that we did. It became very tense at the end. I have never been in that position and I definitely felt like I had the responsibility and I really wanted to do it today”, said Sharapova.
Vitalia Diatchenko and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova secured the 4-0 final point by beating Klaudia Jans Ignacik and Agnicja Rosolska 6-4 6-4 in the dead doubles match.
Defending champions from Czech Republic beat Canada 3-0 in Quebec City. Czech rising star Karolina Pliskova won her second singles match this weekend on Sunday beating Gabriela Dabrowski 6-4 6-2 in the opening reverse singles match. Pliskova, the best-ranked Czech player in 22nd place, beat Canadian 18-year-old Francoise Abanda 6-2 6-4 on Saturday in her Fed Cup debut. In the other Saturday’s match Tereza Smitkova beat Dabrowski 6-1 6-2.
Pliskova trailed 1-4 in the opening set after dropping her serve in the fourth game but she reeled off five consecutive games to seal the first set with 6-4. Pliskova cruised to 4-0 in the second set. Dabrowski won the fifth and the sixth game to close the gap to 2-4 but Pliskova secured the win by winning the next two games. Czech Republic will play against France on 18-19 April.
