After a scare from Rodionova, Schmiedlova managed to turn the match around from 5-7 1-4 and get the first point for Slovakia. Stosur did not let Cepelova to upset her and took a lead in their H2H.
The match to start of the tie in Bratislava, Slovakia was Anna Schmiedlova and the Russian born Arina Rodionova. Rodionova was one of the bigger stories during the off-season, when she played the final of the Australian Open Wild Card Play-off, and got married later that d
ay. Schmiedlova was coming into this match as a huge favorite, being ranked more than 230 places higher in the rankings than her opponent. Schmiedlova came out well, she was dictating the rallies and was up 2-0. Then Rodionova started attacking Schmiedlova’s second serve, sometimes even coming to the net from it. Rodionova started to
play better and better, which was surprising for Schmiedlova and everybody else. If you didn’t know Rodionova’s ranking, you would have thought that she is a Top 50 player. Rodionova played a lot of slices, keeping Schmiedlova behind the baseline, Rodionova was making many unexpected drop shots, masking them really well, and her doubles experience was a guarantee of great net play that she was showing. Add to that Schmiedlova’s struggle on serve and you got yourself a possible upset. Rodionova kept exploiting that second serve, resulting in Schmiedlova winning only 35% of her second set points and being very nervous. After the Australian breaking, she was serving for the first set at 5-4. Then it was evident that she doesn’t have that killer instinct that comes with experience, and allowed Schmiedlova to get to 5-5. Once again a terrible service game from Schmiedlova, getting broken by Rodionova. This time Rodionova managed to serve it out, and after a game filled with long beautiful rallies, the World No. 259 Arina Rodionova was leading 7-5 over N0. 29, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
Rodionova got off to a good start in the second set as well, breaking the Slovak’s serve in the first game, and holding in the second. At this point, Rodionova was in an amazing zone, playing what was possibly the best matc
h of her life at her Fed Cup debut. Schmiedlova started serving better, putting her first serve in more, but Rodionova was just unbeatable, not giving Schmiedlova any chances. A very long game was played at 1-3 on Schmiedlova’s serve. Schmiedlova defended her serve for long, kept fighting on, fencing off the break points until Rodionova finally ended the game, confirming the 6th break point. At this point Rodionova’s up a set and 4-1 in the second, also she is going to serve. It looks like it’s the end for the Slovak’s chances. But Schmiedlova didn’t give up, took the break back. In her service game she was up 40-15, but then her first serve went out, started struggling again and got under pressure, but in the end managed to win her service game and get to 3-4. With Schmiedlova showing some great returns, she managed to break back again and get back in the second set. Schmiedlova surprisingly got 4 games in a row and went from being down 1-4 with two breaks to 5-4. Rodionova really had to defend her serve hard, saving 3 set points. After that we saw 2 long games, which together had 9 deuces together. At 6-5 Schmiedlova went for it, pushed Rodionova hard and broke her to win the second set 7-5 after being down 1-4 with two breaks.
In the third set, Schmiedlova continued to play great tennis and Rodionova’s level visibly dropped and also started to get cramps in her quadratic muscles. Schmiedlova dominated throughout the third set and didn’t give Rodionova a single game point. The match lasted over 3 hours, so I am curious if Schmiedlova tomorrow will face Stosur, and if she does, how she will deal with the fatigue from this match.
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (SVK) – Arina Rodionova (AUS) 5-7 7-5 6-0
The second match was played between the Australian No. 1 Samantha Stosur and Slovak No. 5 Jana Cepelova. Cepelova was picked to play Sto
sur over Cibulkova and Hantuchova by the captain Matej Liptak, because Cepelova’s game gives Stosur the most problems of the three. Their head to head is 1-1, and both their matches went 3 sets. Cepelova took Stosur’s serve in the first game and gave no chance from the beginning and right after the break she won her serve with a clean game. We saw quick games from the servers until 3:1, when Cepelova got broken back. Stosur won 5 games in a row to take the first set 6-3. This was an entirely different match than the first one. Serves were faster, rallies were shorter, both players like playing fast and were hitting their strokes hard. The first 6 games in the second set were pretty straightforward, except one break point on Stosur’s serve. At 3-3 a.k.a. the Tilden game, Cepelova wasted away two game points and lost her serve. When serving for the match, Stosur won a straight game with 2 aces and 2 winners, thus equaling the tie to 1-1 and taking a lead in her head to head with Cepelova 2-1.
Samantha Stosur (AUS) – Jana Cepelova (SVK) 6-3 6-4
Tomorrow’s matches:
Samantha Stosur – Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
Arina Rodionova – Jana Cepelova
Dellacqua/Stosur – Cepelova/Hantuchova*
*The nominations can be changed by the captains
