By Adrianna Outlaw | Saturday, April 18, 2015
Playing her first match since February, Petra Kvitova beat Kristina Mladenovic, 6-3, 6-4, to give the host Czech Republic a 2-0 lead over France in the Fed Cup semifinals.
Photo credit: @FedCup
Czech fans were banging drums and blaring horns in Ostrava. Lucie Safarova and Petra Kvitova conducted a winning performance for the defending Fed Cup champions.
The 13th-ranked Safarova fought off five match points in rallying for a 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1 victory over Caroline Garcia to open today's Fed Cup semifinal against France at the CEZ Arena.
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Serving at 4-5 in the second set, Safarova saved five match points, eventually forcing the tie break. She rolled through the third set to stake the stake the host to the lead.
Playing her first match since February, Kvitova defeated Kristina Mladenovic, 6-3, 6-4, as the good friends and lefty teammates put the Czech Republic right where it wants — to be within one win of its fourth Fed Cup final in five years.
It was Kvitova's first match since she lost to Carla Suarez Navarro in Doha in February as she has been sidelined from exhaustion and ennui.
While the two-time Wimbledon champion showed some nerves in the early stages, she settled in scoring her ninth victory in her last 10 Fed Cup singles matches. It was the 13th consecutive live rubber victory for the home side.
"I'm very happy, of course it was a difficult match for me," Kvitova told FedCup.com afterward. "I mean I was really nervous. I didn't know what I should expect from myself. After this quite long break it's always difficult to come back and play. As the leader of the team, everyone is expecting at least two points from myself. I'm glad I was able to bring the first point and we are leading 2-0."
Kvitova cracked a forehand winner to break for a 3-1 lead in the opener. She banged a serve winner to close the first set. Kvitova is happy to be back on court and pleased with the result though she said she knows there is more work to do.
"Of course I ws happy because I won, but I mean I couldn't really move well it was really tough in my legs," Kvitova said. "So I'm glad that I won and of course there are a lot of things I can improve. I'm happy to be back."
Her teammates looked ecstatic to see her back.
The Czechs hold a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match semifinal and can clinch a place in the November 14-15th final with a win in either reverse singles matches or the doubles tomorrow.
The fourth-ranked Kvitova is set to face No. 29 Garcia in Sunday's opening reverse singles match with Safarova scheduled to play Mladenovic in the second reverse singles. Garcia has lost nine of her last 11 matches against lefty opponents.
French captain Amelie Mauresmo could opt to 28th-ranked Alize Cornet in singles. Cornet and Pauline Parmentier are slated to play the doubles match, if necessary, against 12th-ranked Karolina Pliskova and 28th-ranked Barbora Strycova.