Canada no match for czechs in fed cup
• Canada was overmatched in its first appearance in the elite Fed Cup World Group as the defending champion Czech Republic finished off a 4-0 sweep of the first-round tie on Sunday.
Canada needed to be perfect after dropping the opening two singles matches of the bestof-five series on Saturday, and Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski got off to a promising start by taking a 4-1 lead in the first set against Karolina Pliskova.
Canada’s faint hope quickly evaporated. Pliskova, the world’s 22nd-ranked player, stormed back to win the match 6-4, 6-2 and send the Czechs to a semifinal against France.
“After [Pliskova] won the first set, she settled down and was more relaxed,” Dabrowski said. “But I gave my best on every point regardless of whether I was up 4-1 or I lost the first set or I was down in the second. I was trying my hardest the whole time.”
With the tie already won, the Czechs completed the sweep when Denisa Allertova and Lucie Hradecka defeated Dabrowski and Montreal’s Françoise Abanda 6-1, 7-6 (2).
“It wasn’t the result we were hoping for,” Canadian team captain Sylvain Bruneau said. “I knew it would be difficult to win this, but I thought we had a chance. I told them to give it their all and take advantage of the opportunity. I felt they really tried, but the level as of now is just not as high as the Czechs.”
Canada, which was competing in the eight-team World Group for the first time, will now be forced to participate in a World Group playoff on April 18 and 19 to try and keep its place in the highest level of Fed Cup play for 2016.
A win would maintain Canada’s position in the World Group while a loss would drop the squad back down to World Group II. The official draw for the World Group playoffs will take place on Tuesday.
“April will not be an easy tie,” Bruneau said. “Whoever we play it will be a tough country. Hopefully we have some of the players we were missing this weekend to help us but the experience that our girls had this weekend could also serve them well in the future.”
The matchup was missing several key players. Eugenie Bouchard, ranked seventh in the world, declined to play for Canada. Canada’s next highest ranked singles player, Sharon Fichman of Toronto, was injured. She was on the team but was not selected to play.
The Czechs were missing world No. 4 Petra Kvitova and No. 15 Lucie Safarova.
Elsewhere, France came back from 2-0 down to beat host Italy 3-2 Sunday. Russia and Germany also advancing to the semifinals.
Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic stunned Italy by first winning their respective singles matches before teaming up to rout top-ranked doubles pair Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, 6-1, 6-2 to complete the comeback.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” France captain Amelie Mauresmo said. “They were really able to put some amazing stuff out there on the court.”
Mauresmo surprisingly benched French No. 1 Alize Cornet for the opening reverse singles, replacing her with Mladenovic who beat Errani 6-4, 6-3 to get France back into the series. Garcia then recovered from a set down to defeat Camila Giorgi 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.