Defending champions Italy battle into BJK Cup semis

Defending champions Italy battled into the Billie Jean King Cup semi-finals with a pair of comeback singles wins against China.

Elisabetta Cocciaretto threw herself to the floor in relief after producing an extraordinary comeback to beat Yue Yuan 4-6 7-5 7-5 in the first singles match in Shenzhen, China.

Cocciaretto was a set and 5-2 down and found herself trailing 4-0 in the decider before somehow rallying to victory.

Yuan twice served for the match but Cocciaretto broke her on both occasions, and won the final five games of the deciding set to give Italy the lead.

“Thanks to my captain, my team, my coach, I came back and fought until the last point,” Cocciaretto said.

World number eight Jasmine Paolini then gave Italy an unassailable 2-0 lead with a 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 win over Wang Xinyu.

Wang also served for the match in the second set but was broken by Paolini – to the disappointment of a boisterous home crowd.

Paolini then came through a tight deciding set to set up a semi-final against either Spain or Ukraine.

“Today was a bit tough for me, but I tried to stay there for the bench, the Italian fans, for the country,” Paolini said.

The doubles match between the two teams was cancelled with the best-of-three tie already decided.