Title defending Russia goes down in Fed Cup
28th April 2006
Having Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin Hardenne reunited in the fed cup team after three years again was a ultimately successful formula for the Belgian team this weekend.
They had a dangerously armed Russia against them in Luik, and Belgium lost the first battle but eventually won the war!
Kim was deeply disappointed after failing in her first Fed Cup task on Saturday against Elena Dementieva. She lost against the Russian in two sets; 6-4 and 6-3. “I didn’t play my best tennis and even though I kept on fighting, she was just too strong and had the right tactics. I tried to make the rallies short but I couldn’t finish them of!” Luckily there was Justine, who also had a bad client on Nadia Petrova but had the courage to be a little more patient and eventually stay alive and most concentrated the longest in a marathon 3 set match. Justine and Nadia were both suffering from cramps at the end of day one, but they could go to sleep in the knowledge at least that they both had one point on the scoreboard for their respective teams.
And then it was Kim’s turn to convince everyone that she had the power inside herself as well to earn a victory for her team. Kirilenko might have been a surprisingly easy opponent when you expect a petrova being totally in ‘the zone’ lately on the WTA tennis circuit to stand at the other side of the net against you, but Kim showed of that she was totally prepared for either one of them. Playing far more convincing and confident than the day before, she managed to give the 19 year old Russian a Fed Cup debut that nobody dreams of: a loss in two relatively easy sets for Kim, 6-1 and 6-4!
A more comfortable position for the Belgian team to be in from that moment on, because it provided them with another two chances to win the tie. While title defending Russia was forced to win the last singles match to still have their chance to go to the Fed Cup semi finals!
If Elena Dementieva would be just as convincing on Sunday as she was the day before there still was hope. But Justine had the tactics to beat the Russian well in mind! Elena started the match with a beautiful ace, and managed to cause Justine trouble in the beginning of that first set, but the Belgian didn’t like that scenario much and forced a break on Dementieva’s serve when leading 3-2. She held on to that break and served out the set shortly after that: 6-2. The second set was a demonstration of the current number 4 in the rankings; she didn’t allow Dementieva to win one game anymore and earned the tie victory for Belgium on a 6-0 humiliation for the Russian girl in the deciding set!
Kirsten Flipkens and Caroline Maes could immediately join Kim and Justine in having a “champagne shower”, the doubles match would be nothing more anymore than an unimportant detail!
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