By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday November 6, 2021
There’s some bad blood brewing between Switzerland and Russia after Saturday’s Billie Jean King Cup Final. Upset by a late personnel change by Russia, the Swiss team accused the Russian team of not abiding by the spirit of the event.
"Well it unfolded slightly differently, since we were told 15 minutes before the tie started that they switched No.1 player for their No.4 player," Swiss captain Heinz Guenthardt said. "Now I don't want to second-guess it but some people might say that's a smart move, now that's impossible - because either she actually injured herself, that would be unfortunate, or they did it on purpose, which would be cheating…”
At the heart of Switzerland's anger is that the late change allowed Russia to slot Samsonova into the No.1-ranked player slot when she was actually Russia's lowest-ranked player. Russia was able to play her there because she was a late emergency replacement for Pavlyuchenkova, and because the rules allow it (they have not been changed since Fed Cup has changed its format).
Samsonova had a 2-0 lifetime record against Bencic, while Pavlyuchenkova's was 2-6 and Kasatkina's record against Bencic is 3-2, for the record.
Matt Roberts of the Tennis Podcast explains it very well on today's episode, from Prague:
A disappointed Belinda Bencic, who expected to play Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on the day but instead ended up falling to Liudmila Samsonova in three sets, was clearly miffed after her loss.
“I think it was ugly to be honest and I just think in the end I think the good will win and we will come back and we will win this title,” she said.
Russia had legally changed players about 15 minutes before the tie after Pavlyuchenvkova had seen a doctor and was ruled to be suffering from patellar tendinitis. She said she was feeling the injury on Friday but wanted so badly to play and help her team win the trophy that she pushed it til the last minute.
The Swiss were not satisfied with the way Russia handled the situation, and insinuated that they might have known that Pavlyuchenkova wasn't going to play as early as Friday evening.
"I have a knee issue for a long time and the decision was made because when you play an individual match where you can maybe stop, but I knew I couldn't do it to my team especially when we are in the final. I realized that I am not able to give my 100 percent, maybe for a set maximum,” Pavlyuchenkova said. "I already felt yesterday evening, but I wanted to try my best, and I tried this morning during warmup and I still believed that I could do it, but I just couldn't even serve, so that was the decision."
Russian Captain Igor Andreev said not much thought was given to the decision – it was simply what needed to be done.
"Anastasia played two tough matches over the last two days, three days," he said. "Today she wanted to play but on the warmup she felt like she is not able to give 100 percent, and since that we changed the nomination, that's it - nothing more to say,” Russian captain Igor Andreev said.
The bad blood between the two teams marred what was otherwise a brilliant week of tennis at this year’s Billie Jean King Cup final. Russia was a deserving victor, and Pavlyuchenkova was a key contributor – but it was Daria Kasatkina and Samsonova that stole the show on Saturday.
"It's sad that we are actually talking about this, we should only be talking about the tie, how we played, as Heinz said they played awesome tennis and we have to accept that but still we're here talking about something that has nothing to do with tennis, so it's just sad," Said Jil Teichmann, who fell to Kasatkina in the first rubber.
"Right now I just feel like I am just very disappointed," Bencic said. "I think it was the last match, the last push that I didn't manage and yes, I'm just very disappointed right now about this of course. I gave all my heart for Switzerland on the court and I just wish it would have happened differently today and again I think we all, the whole team, we put our hearts out there every day and every match and we will do it again next year.”
Guenthardt didn’t let his frustration stop him from giving the Russian players credit for great tennis on Saturday.
“I have to say that they played really, really well - they were absolutely the better team,” he said. “In the second singles, Samsonova came up with the goods when she needed to, and I thought that Kasatkina played an excellent match - I didn't look at the statistics but she basically gave nothing away. So yes they played extremely well and they absolutely deserved the win because they were on the day the better team."