Despite Amelie Mauresmo’s absence from the French team, France retains its place in the World Group in next year’s edition of the Federation Cup after trouncing the Czech Republic with three match wins against the Czech’s two match wins thanks to the gallant efforts of Tatiana Golovin and Severine Bremond, who won the crucial doubles rubber against the Czech duo composed of Iveta Benesova and Kveta Peschke.

Czech Nicole Vaidova drew first blood for her country as she beat Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin in three hard fought sets, 6-1, 3-6, 11-9. France earned its first match victory when Natalie Dechy won her tie against Lucie Safarova, 6-2, 6-3, leveling the score at one win for both countries.

Fresh from her previous day win, Nicole Vaidisova proved yet again her mettle by overpowering Natalie Dechy in one hour and ten minutes, 6-2, 6-3, giving the Czech Republic its second win. With France down at 2-1, Tatiana Golovin seemed hard-pressed to win her tie against Lucie Safarova, and Golovin did it without a sweat. With imposing shots, Golovin tired Safarova by moving her around the court. Golovin won the match 6-2, 6-1, forcing a crucial doubles match.

Emelie Loit was to play in the doubles rubber but a wrist injury prevented her. Tatiana Golovin then teamed with Wimbledon quarterfinalist Severine Bremond in subduing the Czech duo of Iveta Benesova and Kveta Peschke. The Czech duo gave stiff resistance in the second set of the match by forcing a tiebreaker. As the French duo were invincible during the match, they went on to win the doubles rubber and brought France back into the Federation Cup’s World Group, 6-4, 7-6(2).

French team captain Georges Goven has only praises for his players, “I’m really proud of the girls. They showed that in the rare instances when Mauresmo and Pierce are not available for any kind of reason, they were perfectly capable of filling the spots and playing top quality tennis.”

(Ostend, Belgium) Kim Clijsters defeated Vania King of USA to earn herself and her Belgian team a place in the Fed Cup final against Italy with leading the tie 3-0. In a one-sided match, Clijsters absolutely dominated King. The youngster was a stand if for Jill Craybas, who was not injured and according to Belgian Team Captain Carl Maes it was merely a tactical decision. With this 6-0, 6-1 victory over King, Belgium is now leading 3-0 and will be looking forward playing the final in Charleroi, Belgium.

“We did all we could do,” Clijsters said. “We had an ideal start yesterday, and today I played much better than yesterday.

“I was motivated to play Craybas but an hour before we had to play we were told I had to play Vania King instead. I had lost against Craybas in our last meeting in Miami, so I had something to make up for in front of our crowd. I had never seen King play and I didn’t know how she was playing.

“I will take a week off and then go to Stanford. I am going to drop a few weeks from my calendar. I will not play in LA but only Stanford and San Diego,” Clijsters said about her full tennis schedule, trying to fit in the final against Italy.Kim Clijsters

Carl Maes said that Italy was definitely the better of the two teams that played in Spain this weekend. “I think we will be playing on hard court again. The Italian players all grew up with clay, although they had some good results on hard court too. But we might want to choose for hard court in the final.

“I want to contact Justine as soon as possible to hear what she thinks, we all decide together like we did last time. And with Justine in the team we stand a better change against Italy without a doubt, although Flipkens played very well yesterday. I think we are going to enjoy a lot of her tennis now that she stepped over that mentality issue and moved on in her career.

“I have nothing to say about the way Kim played today. I could only look at my watch and see how fast the changeovers were going. She played very good today.”

Martina Hingis plays her only match representing the New York Sportimes against the Boston Lobsters in the on-going World Team Tennis (WTT) on July 21, 2006. This is the second year that Hingis will be playing for the New York Sportimes and at the WTT.

Recall that Hingis, a newcomer here last year, made a successful stint by helping the New York Sportimes its first World Team Tennis Championship. On her way into the finals, Hingis beat her namesake Martina Navratilova several times. It was also Hingis who was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of WTT. She did not lose any set during the semifinals and the final rounds of last years’ edition of WTT.

A repeat of last year’s meeting between Hingis and Navratilova will not be possible as Navratilova plays on July 24th against Delaware Smash.

As of this writing, the New York Sportimes is leading the Eastern Conference while Springfield Lasers lead the Western Conference.

(Ostend, Belgium) Kim Clijsters defeated Jamea Jackson in three sets to give Belgium a 2-0 lead in the Fed Cup tie against the United States of America. The Belgian, who wants to quit tennis next year, needed three sets to overcome the young and promising Jackson from Bradenton, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Clijsters took a 3-1 lead in the first set but saw how Jackson was working her way along side of the Belgian No. 2 in the world. Jackson took a 4-3 lead when she broke Clijsters and held on to her own service games to win the first set 6-4.

In the second set again Clijsters got a 3-1 lead but saw her service game go to the American in the fifth game. Clijsters, however, managed to break right back for 4-2 and held on to her own game taking the 5-2 lead. Jackson could not prevent Clijsters from breaking her service game again, and the Belgian took the second set, 6-2.Jamea Jackson

Clijsters took a 4-1 lead in the third and final set and held a break point for 5-1 twice. With hitting a return forehand winner, she broke Jackson’s service and could finish the match on her own service game. After she hit a forehand winner on 30-all, Clijsters reached her first match point, but her dropshot landed wide.

With another winner, she reached her second match point. This time she took it after Jackson hit her return long. Clijsters took Belgium to a 2-0 lead in the tie with ending the match, 4-6, 6-2, and 6-1. She will face Jill Craybas in the match on Sunday.

According to Carl Maes Jackson was better than Clijsters today. “Jackson was playing ‘Kim’s Game’, so she had to adjust her game and that is something that is not easy to do for Kim,” Clijsters’ ex-coach said.

“I was really nervous for the match of today,” Clijsters said.

(Ostend, Belgium) Kirsten Flipkens won the opening match of the Fed Cup meeting between Belgium and the USA. The Belgian defeated Jill Craybas to give her country a 1-0 lead. Flipkens needed three sets to overcome the 32-year-old veteran Craybas, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Flipkens had a very good start and took a 4-1 lead in the first set after she broke Craybas in the fourth game. The American fought herself back into the match and could tie 4-all after she broke in the seventh game. Craybas had the better side of the game after that, and Flipkens started to hit errors. In the 11th game, Craybas hit two winners and when Flipkens hit a double fault on 30-40, the American broke the Belgian service game. Leading 6-5, Craybas served for the first set and won it when Flipkens hit the net on 40-15.

In the second set Flipkens broke Craybas service in the fourth game, and after winning her own service game on love, she took a 4-1 lead. This time she did not hand over the lead and held on to her service. The 20-year-old Belgian broke again in the eighth game and took the second set 6-2 with a solid winner.

Leading 4-0, Flipkens again handed over her comfortable lead. Craybas again came back into the match after Flipkens started to hit errors and double faults on crucial points. The American broke in the fifth and the seventh game and tied 4-all

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Craybas lost against Flipkens
Flipkens held on to her service game for 5-4, and Craybas had to hold on to her service to stay in the match. The Belgian started with a running forehand winner. Craybas tied 15-all with a backhand winner. Flipkens hit a moon ball, and the American did not find the right answer to that. Flipkens hit another forehand winner for 15-30 and got her first match point when Craybas hit a backhand wide for 30-40.

The Belgian backhand went long for deuce. With a beautiful stopvolley, she got her second matchpoint. Again Craybas turned it to deuce. She also took the next points and held advantage but could not convert them into winning the game.

After 2 hours and 10 minutes, Flipkens got her fourth match point, this time she took it with a smash and won the match 5-7, 6-2 and 6-4.

“It was a tough match mentally,” Flipkens said. “After I took the lead and then letting it slip away, but I proved to myself that I can handle that mentally now. When you lead 4-0 on grass you are sure you win the match, and here anything could happen. Maybe I played too defensive on 4-0.

“I played a good match, but my service and my returns were not that good. It’s difficult to play against Craybas. She is using the speed of the balls good on returns, and she moves very well on court, so I could not come to the net as much as I wanted.

“My victory is only one point, but it could be the most important point of the weekend. The crowd helped me a lot with the good moments, and they helped me through the bad moments.

“I was really happy with the smash on matchpoint, it came from so high that I had all the time to think about how to play it. I knew I would win the match if I just hit it right.”