The captain of our team, Dawid Celt, decided to send Magdalena Fręch and Iga Świątek for the singles matches against the Czechs in the quarterfinals of the Billie Jean King Cup. Once again, the lower ranked players competed first. Unfortunately, Fręch lost to Marie Bouzkova 1:6, 6:4, 4:6, despite a significant improvement in her game during the match.
The fate of the Polish national team in the confrontation with the Czech Republic fell on the shoulders of Iga Świątek. The Pole had to defeat Linda Noskova to reach the decisive doubles. If the Czech won, her team would advance to the semi-finals after the singles matches.
Iga Świątek showed a very good performance against Paula Badosa, while Linda Noskova was a big unknown. The 26-year-old world player played her last match during the US Open, from which she was eliminated in the first round. A week earlier, she triumphed in the event in Monterrey. Świątek found out about her capabilities in January during the third round of the Australian Open. Noskova then won in three sets.
Solidity prevailed on the “tennis kamikaze”
The 19-year-old's lack of match rhythm showed up quickly. Her game was very jerky, and two double service faults helped the Pole to break. Even though it was the very beginning of the match, this moment turned out to be very important, because both tennis players held their serves quite solidly. Noskova's game was a one-two punch. Once she hit it spectacularly, but then the mistakes were counted even in meters. “Kamikaze tennis” – as commentators put it.
The Polish woman was a bit in the shadow in the fireworks offered by the Czech, but the most important thing was that she was ahead in terms of results. She played solidly, she did not try to play strong with her opponent, but at some point she fell into an unexpected hole. She gave her opponent several points, which resulted in a return break. Noskova won nine points in a row in this phase of the match!
Fortunately, her momentum didn't last long. She was ruined again by two double service faults in one game. At the break point, Świątek took matters into her own hands and a moment later she served for the first game. However, the 19-year-old Czech did not intend to stop fighting. Her strong returns impressed the Pole. It led to a tie-break. In this case, the solidity of the runner-up in the ranking prevailed. She won it 7:6(4) in 70 minutes.
Service dominance
The show lost some heat because in the second set both players won their service games very confidently. There were basically no exchanges. Each match ended after two or three strokes, but Świątek found herself well in the rhythm of play imposed by Noskova.
Unfortunately, the end of the second game belonged to the 19-year-old. First, unexpectedly – because there was no indication – she broke the Polish player after a volley that fell just behind the net, and then she confirmed the break with spectacular backhands. After an hour and 52 minutes, she took the third set.
In the final game, it initially seemed that everything had returned to the norm from the second set. The returning players didn't have much to say, but in the fourth game Noskova fell into a hole. Several shots missed the court, which resulted in two break points for Świątek. The Pole was exceptionally effective on such occasions that day. She took a 3-1 lead, which she confirmed a moment later with her serve.
At that time it seemed that this would be a key moment, because Noskova was completely deranged. Her shots landed far off the court, but unfortunately the same thing happened to Iga Świątek. She started making huge mistakes in convenient positions, which resulted in the Czech making up for all her losses. The Pole began to throw up her hands in helplessness over her sudden poor level of play.
Fortunately, she managed to break her opponent's series and keep the serve at 5:4 and then 6:5, even though the confidence and quality of her game clearly decreased. Despite this, she was able to mobilize herself as much as possible. After two hours and 38 minutes, she won two match balls. She wasted the first one by messing up her backhand. The second one was presented by her rival, who broke a forehand shot. Noskova held her head when she saw what she had done.
There was no point in being happy about such a mistake by her opponent, but it meant Iga Świątek won 7:6(4), 4:6, 7:5, which meant that we were still in the semi-final of the Billie Jean King Cup. Everything will be decided by doubles.