Mladenovic ends Coco’s 13-match Fed Cup run
Czechs dominate in Germany
April 21, (AFP): Kristina Mladenovic ended Coco Vandeweghe’s 13-match Fed Cup win streak to pull France level at 1-1 against 18-time champions the United States in a gruelling semifinal on Saturday.
The US, playing without Serena and Venus Williams, had taken a 1-0 lead in Aix-en-Provence after US Open cham- pion Sloane Stephens defeated Pauline Parmentier 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.
However, world number 20 Mladenovic then shrugged off a back injury to come from a set down and defeat 16th-ranked Vandeweghe 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 to leave the semifinal delicately poised ahead of Sunday’s two reverse singles and doubles rubber.
Mladenovic, who won all of her matches in February’s first round victory over Belgium, looked dead and buried at a set and 3-0 down to the bighitting American.
But the 24-year-old Frenchwoman hauled herself back to 3-3 and never looked back as Vandeweghe’s game fell apart.
World number nine Stephens claimed her first win in the Fed Cup in two years but it was hard work against Parmentier, ranked a lowly 122 and only playing afPARIS, ter seventh-ranked Caroline Garcia and number 35 Alize Cornet opted not to take part.
Parmentier had led 5-2 in the first set and had break points for a potential 5-3 advantage in the second before Stephens, fresh off her title run in Miami, battled back.
In the other semifinal in Stuttgart, 10-time champions Czech Republic romped into a 2-0 lead over Germany.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the world number 10, needed just over an hour for an emphatic 6-3, 6-2 win over 11th-ranked Julia Goerges.
Karolina Pliskova, the match’s highest-ranked player at six, followed that up with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Angelique Kerber, a fellow former world number one.
In Wollongong, Australia, Ashleigh Barty has leveled Australia’s Fed Cup World Group playoff against the Netherlands with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Quirine Lemoine on indoor hard courts.
In the opening singles match Saturday, Lesley Kerkhove upset Samantha Stosur 7-5, 7-6 (1). Stosur had her chance to get back into the match, holding two break points in the eighth game of the second set, but she allowed Kerkhove to win the next four points and then was outclassed in the tiebreaker.
In Miki, Japan, Johanna Konta has leveled Britain’s Fed Cup World Group playoff against Japan with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Kurumi Nara on Saturday.
After taking a 3-0 lead in the second set, Konta broke Nara to lead 5-2 and then served for the win to level the playoff at 1-1. Leinster’s Irish player Jordan Larmour (left), is taken down by Scarlets’ Ryan Elias and Scarlets’ Scottish number 8 John Barclay during the European Champions Cup rugby union semifinal between Leinster and Scarlets at Aviva
Stadium in Dublin, Ireland on April 21. (AFP)