Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Tuesday November 19, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.
This Tuesday, Slovakia joined Italy, who defeated Poland the day before, in the final of the BJK Cup in Malaga, defeating Great Britain at the end of the decisive doubles. The final will take place this Wednesday in Malaga.
While the final phase of the Davis Cup began at 5:00 p.m. with a highly anticipated Spain – Netherlands which could be the very last match of Rafael Nadal's career, the second semi-final of the BJK Cup also took place this Tuesday after -noon in Malaga, and Slovakia joined Italy, which qualified after midnight on Monday to the detriment of Poland. Faced with surprising Slovaks, defeaters of the Americans of Danielle Collins then the Australians of Ajla Tomljanovic, it was the Briton Emma Raducanu who enforced the hierarchy (58th against 238th) and brought the first point to her country by beating Viktoria Hruncakova 6-4, 6-4 in 1h36. But in the match of n°1, Rebecca Sramkova (43rd) created a surprise by beating Katie Boulter (24th) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 2h12 in a match with ten breaks to put the two teams back on track. equality. It was therefore the doubles which decided the fate of this second semi-final. And the Slovak pair Viktoria Hruncakova/Tereza Mihalikova dominated Olivia Nicholls and Heather Watson with a score of 6-2, 6-2 in 1h14. Twenty-two after the triumph of the Hantuchova-Husarova generation, Slovakia returns to the final of the BJK Cup (formerly Fed Cup), and no one would probably have bet on this at the start of last week!
No first final for Poland
In the final on Wednesday, the …. will challenge the Italians, already finalists last year (against Canada) who beat Poland 2-1 on Monday at the end of the night. Lucia Bronzetti, although less well ranked than her opponent (78th against 38th) had brought the first point to Italy by beating Magda Linette 6-4, 7-6 in 1h48 in a match with seven breaks where she saw the Pole come back from 1-4 to 6-5 in the second set before beating her in the tie-break (7-3). But Iga Swiatek reset the scoreboard by beating Jasmine Paolini in the No. 1 match, a remake of the last Roland-Garros final. If the Pole had only left three games to the Italian in Paris in June, Paolini this time resisted better but lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 2h37. The world No. 2 was not having a great day serving (6 double faults, 16 break points to defend) but managed to recover after losing the first set, where she had a 4 ball. -2. Everything came down to the doubles, where the Olympic champion pair Jasmine Paolini/Sara Errani faced Iga Swiatek and Katarzyna Kawa. And the two Italians won this pretty crazy match with a score of 7-5, 7-5 in 1h37 after saving three balls in the first set at 5-4 then coming back from 1-5 to 7-5 in the second! Poland will therefore not play its first final, while Italy will play the seventh and will aim for its fifth success, the first since 2013. Sara Errani (37 years old) was already there. The last match between Slovakia and Italy dates back to April 2023, and the Italians won 3-2.
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