First day of the Fed Cup tie played in Leipzig brought us two straight set matches between Angelique Kerber and Timea Bacsinszky; and Belinda Bencic against Andrea Petkovic. Both No. 1 players won as expected. Despite both all players being inside Top 25, the matches were mostly one-sided.
Petkovic then put a lot of
pressure on Bencic’s serve but the Swiss dealt with it very well, held her serve after two deuces and set up Petkovic to serve to stay in the first set. Petkovic seemed panicked on her serve, lost 4 points in a row on her serve, thus losing the first set 3-6.
In the second set, Petkovic came out with a much better level of her game and Bencic maintained hers. We saw 5 more or less straightforward service games in a row. During the long important game at 2-3, at advantage for Germany, a ballkid moved just a couple of seconds before Bencic hit a winner, which ended in a heated discussion between the umpire, Swiss captain and Bencic and resulted into replaying the point, with which the Swiss were less than happy about. At the replay, Petkovic served an ace and equaled to 3-3. However Bencic did not let herself lose her cool and easily held to 4-3, putting pressure on Petkovic. The 4-3 game on the German’s serve was definitely key, Petkovic showed off her mental strength, putting away two break points and taking away Bencic’s chance to serve for the match. Bencic once again held easily, making Petkovic serve to stay in the match. Petkovic didn’t take the pressure well, Bencic played a great return game and broke Petkovic to win the match. Overall I must say that I was really impressed with Bencic’s game, she played aggressively throughout the match, served at 70% first serves in and won 74% of her first serve points. Petkovic didn’t play bad, nor did she play exceptionally well. However it was a big step up from the match she played at Australian Open where she lost to Elizaveta Kulichkova.
Belinda Bencic (SUI) – Andrea Petkovic (GER) 6-3 6-4
In the second match of Day 2, we had the Swiss No. 2 Timea Bacsinszky challenging the Australian Open 2016 champion and the World No. 2, Angelique Kerber. I had my doubts about Kerber coming into this match, about how she will handle the pressure, about possible fatigue but she went out and played an amazing match. Bacsinszky was in a bit of a slump in Australia, not winning back to back matches. Kerber winning over 80% of points after her first serve was really one of the defining factors in the first set. We saw definitely less winners and more rallying than in the first match. Kerber started really well, stunning Bacsinszky and she just wasn’t losing many points, Bacsinszky had to work for almost all her points. Kerber had 2 set points at 5-0, but Bacsinszky kept on fighting and won her first game. Then Kerber easily served out and ended the first dominating set 6-1.
In the second set, Kerber’s level went down a bit in the beginning but then she got her head back in the game and broke her opponent at 2-2. From then on we saw both players hold without any deuces until 5-3 with Bacsinszky serving. An amazing game played by both Kerber and Bacsinszky, who really brought out her best when she was under the pressure of match points. She managed to save 3 until she double faulted and lost the match.
Angelique Kerber (GER) – Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) 6-1 6-3
Overall the matches ended as I predicted, with the wins of the No. 1 from each country, although I expected a little more drama and closer matches. Tomorrow, you can be excited for the matches:
Angelique Kerber – Belinda Bencic
Andrea Petkovic – Timea Bacsinszky
Beck/Groenefeld – Golubic/Hingis*
*If the doubles will be the deciding match, the teams will most definitely change
