With their victory over Spain, Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk won the first-ever semi-final of the Billie Jean King Cup.
In the best-of-three tie, Ukraine held on to a 2-0 lead thanks to the world number 13 Svitolina’s victory over Paula Badosa, who won 5 – 6 – 7-5.
Before Badosa, the former world number two, rallied, Svitolina was 4-1 up in the third set.
In the decisive set, Badosa had a break point of 5-5 that, had she converted, would have required her to serve the match.
In the following game, Svitolina held her off and broke serve to win.
Although I wouldn’t claim it was my best performance, Svitolina said it was difficult to match up perfectly for the team and the nation.
“I’m very happy that I can continue to fight so hard for the team Ukraine,” he said. For us, this is a historic moment.
In the semi-finals, Ukraine will face Italy, who is still in contention.
“We have to deal with that because there are going to be a lot of nerves,” he said. It will be a very intriguing tie, Svitolina continued.
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Source: BBC
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