Romania rallies to Amelia Island win
FERNANDINA BEACH — Down two matches to none, needing a clean sweep to extend Romania’s run in the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge, Ana Bogdan didn’t lose heart.
All it took was a little Instagram inspiration.
“I was watching the photos on Instagram, really, all the people who had qualified already,” she said. “I was like, we’re going to be there. We’re going to see our names there on those pictures, and it’s going to be Romania qualifying this time.”
With a bold lineup shakeup, nine hours of grit and an effort to remember from iron women Bogdan and Jaqueline Cristian, Romania roared back from the brink of elimination to deny the home-away-from-home Ukrainian squad 3-2 in Saturday’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifying round at Racquet Park at Omni Amelia Island.
Bogdan and Cristian, just barely removed from winning their reverse singles matches earlier in the afternoon — only a 30-minute interval for Cristian from her 2-hour, 18-minute contest — stunned Ukraine’s doubles specialists Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) under the early-evening skies of Fernandina Beach.
“Both [singles] matches in a regular tournament would be great upsets,” Romania captain Horia Tecau said. “I’m very proud of the way they fought today.”
For Northeast Florida, the qualifier — organized through the Svitolina Foundation, which promotes tennis programs in Ukraine — brought a longawaited return for top-level tennis after an absence of more than a decade. After 29 years of the Bausch & Lomb Invitational at Amelia Island from