Kristina
Mladenovic 3-6, 6-4, 14-16 Karolina Pliskova (Fed Cup Final Rubber 1)
Many were
shocked when the French Tennis Federation chose to play on indoors hard courts,
instead of indoors clay courts, which the French players have an advantage on.
The courts in Strasbourg looked pretty fast as compared to the rest of the hard
court events on the tour, and that gave an advantage to Czech Republic as their
crucial players like Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova are hard hitters and
prefer fast surfaces. Nevertheless, the French team also has hard hitters like
Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia, which makes this tie even more
exciting.
The draw
was conducted in a local parliament the day before, and it saw Kristina
Mladenovic, the French No.2 start against the Czech No.1 and her good friend
Karolina Pliskova. Following that match is the French No.1 player Caroline
Garcia facing Czech No.2 and recent Zhuhai Elite Trophy winner Petra Kvitova.
Mladenovic,
who is participating in her 1st ever Fed Cup Final, was showing
signs of jitters at the start of the match when she got broken immediately by
Pliskova at the start of the match. Pliskova’s serve proved to be invincible
when Mladenovic was visibly struggling to return her serves. Mladenovic managed
to regain her composure and let off some nerves after holding for 2-3, and she
successfully broke Pliskova’s serve to level the match with some good net play
and strong serves which went as fast as 118 mph. Mladenovic’s serve let her
down once again, being broken twice in a row and losing the first set 6-3.
Mladenovic
managed to hold serve in a very tough service game, which saw Pliskova
attacking all the second serves, for 1-1. She was unable to make any
breakthrough in Pliskova’s service games since she broken her for the first
time, as Pliskova’s strong serve and good shot placements were too good for
Mladenovic. The pair exchanged service holds until 3-3, where Mladenovic drew
first blood in the second set when she broke Pliskova’s serve after Pliskova
hit 4 double faults in the game to take the lead for the first time in the
match. Once again, Mladenovic fails to consolidate the break and Pliskova
managed to level the set. Mladenovic managed to serve out the set after yet
another poor service game from Pliskova, and a good service hold in which
Mladenovic showed her good offensive play.
The third
set started with a hold from Pliskova, and also from Mladenovic when she saved
a break point in the process. Mladenovic went up 0-30 in the next service game
of Pliskova, but Pliskova managed to hold her serve and keep the set level.
Pliskova managed to break for the first time in the final set to lead *4-2,
bringing her closer to winning the first rubber for Czech Republic. With some
strong serves, Mladenovic managed to hold a tense service game despite being 2
points away from a defeat. Mladenovic went against the loud Czech crowd and
broke back to level the match on serve, much to the home crowd’s pleasure.
Pliskova stopped the rout after holding her serve at 5-5, making her 1 game
away from winning once again. After extending the match into 8-8, Mladenovic
was visibly struggling with injuries and her movements were obstructed.
Pliskova held her serve, and Mladenovic went 2 match points down in her service
game. However, Mladenovic saved both match points and won the game to make it
9-9 despite suffering from cramps. There were more drama when Mladenovic took a
medical time-out before her opponent’s service game, which was taken as a
tactical move by many. Mladenovic finally broken Pliskova’s serve at 10-10,
which allowed her to serve for the match for the first time having served to
stay in the match for 8 consecutive times. There were further drama when Pliskova
immediately broke back, extending the match into 12-12. Mladenovic came close
to breaking Pliskova’s serve for the second consecutive time, but Pliskova once
again saved break points to hold her serve. Both players then held their serves
all the way until 15-14 in Pliskova’s favour. With Mladenovic serving to stay
in the match once again, Pliskova went 0-40 up, and finally won the match on
her 3rd match point.
Both
players were performing badly on serve today, with both players hitting more
double faults than aces in the match, despite both being known for big servers.
There were also a total of 12 breaks of serve during the match.
The final
set alone lasted a duration of 2 hours and 24 minutes, the longest set in Fed
Cup history. The match lasted a total duration of 3 hours and 48 minutes, 12
minutes short of the longest Fed Cup match in the history which was contested
between Richel Hogenkamp and Svetlana Kuznetsova which happened earlier this
year.