Czech Mate: Fed Cup Final Round-Up

There was plenty of room for drama at this weekend's Fed Cup final, with two recent powerhouse teams going head-to-head for the trophy. But, even with a solid slate of top-twenty players and recent titleists on the German team, the Czechs barreled through their opponents, picking up their third championship in four years, and asserting themselves as a real force in tennis.

Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova opened the final tie against Sofia champion Andrea Petkovic on Saturday, but even with her higher ranking, this promised to be a close match. Petko had climbed back to her highest ranking in three years, picked up a trio of trophies on the season, and, with a 4-3 career record against the Czech, certainly knew how to get the better of her. But Kvitova came out swinging, keeping the German on the baseline while she rushed the net -- she broke serve five times and fired off twenty-five winners during the match, pushing her team to an early lead. Germany had a good shot at evening the score, though, as they pitted their top player Angelique Kerber, an alternate for the year-end final in Singapore, against Lucie Safarova, whose biggest accomplishment to date was a semifinal showing at the All England Club. But the world #16 was able to surprise again -- she took advantage of some weak serving by the four-time runner-up this season to notch her third top-ten win of the year.

With the Czechs taking a dominant 2-0 lead into Day Two, it was up to Kerber again to keep her team -- playing in their first Fed Cup final since 1992 -- alive, and she very nearly did it. Her first set against Kvitova lasted well over an hour and eventually went to a tiebreak, and though she did ultimately succumb, Kerber roared back in the second to give the Germans their first set win of the tie. It was too little, too late, though, as Kvitova stayed tougher in the dramatic decider, but with just four points separating the two women, this rubber really could have gone either way. The Germans did finally get on the board, with Sabine Lisicki and Julia Goerges teaming up to score a surprising win over long-time doubles champs Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, but the 3-1 score was just enough to give the Czechs the win and rise back to the winners' circle they occupied just two years ago.

With so many of the tennis headlines this year dominated by the likes of Serena Williams, Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova, it's easy to have lost sight of the lower-profile Czechs. But with three of the five Fed Cup titles this decade going to the same country, it's hard to ignore their consistency and strength of their team. And I wouldn't be surprised if they make an even bigger name for themselves in the months to come.

Deep Seeded Anxiety

After the rampant bracket busting we saw at Wimbledon this year, we can't really be surprised by the upsets that have come in the weeks that followed. In fact, only one favorite won a title this past weekend, while everyone else broke new ground on their way to the winners' circles. Their performances show just how deep the talent in the fields has become, and may make even the biggest stars a little nervous.

The only top seed to survive the week's action was, maybe not surprisingly, Serena Williams. Playing for the first time in Bastad, Sweden, the world #1 was able to redeem herself after a shockingly early exit at the All England Club -- though she didn't face a player in the top thirty, she did make her way to this title without dropping a set, defeating 2011 runner-up Johanna Larsson in under eighty minutes during Sunday's final. It was Williams' fifty-third career title, her seventh of the year, and should do a lot to erase the memory of a disappointing run in London as she preps for the hardcourt season. But we've seen so often this year that nothing is certain on these courts -- and all the other winners this weekend prove that not all top seeds are safe.

That was quite apparent in Bad Gastein, where world #33 Mona Barthel retired while down a set to Austrian wildcard Lisa-Marie Moser, and up-and-coming German teenager Annika Beck won just a game in her quarterfinal match. Karin Knapp, something of a Cinderella at Wimbledon a few weeks back, was the only seed to make the semis, and even she couldn't cut it against eventual champion Yvonne Meusburger. The twenty-nine year old veteran reached her second straight final, having lost last weekend to Simona Halep in Budapest. But this time against doubles specialist Andrea Hlavackova, playing in her first ever singles championship, the hometown girl had the advantage. After surviving a tight first set, Meusburger won her first career trophy, reached her highest career ranking and proved some things do get better with age.

That sentiment is also true for Ivo Karlovic, who'd been struggling to come back from injury almost a year before being struck by illness in April. The big-serving Croat came to Bogota ranked out of the top hundred-fifty and title-less for over five years, and at thirty-four seemed unlikely to change that. But he withstood some tough challenges in Colombia -- he played five tiebreaks on his way to the final, only dropping one set to second seed Kevin Anderson in the semis. Meanwhile twenty-nine year old Alejandro Falla, himself ranked in triple digits and coming off a win over world #14 Janko Tipsarevic in the quarters, was playing his first ever title match. But Karlovic proved too much for the relatively untested local -- in a quick two-set match which brought his ace total above a hundred for the tournament, nearly three hundred for the year, Dr. Ivo landed his first crown in half a decade and put him back on the radar for the rest of the field.

On the radar too, now, are the two finalists in Hamburg, each of whom pulled off some of the biggest wins of their careers to make the title match. Young Federico Delbonis had won a handful of Challenger events before heading to Germany, but had only spent a total of one week inside the top hundred -- he hit #98 in the world after winning in Barranquilla. But he began his campaign last week with a win over Tommy Robredo and followed up by defeating recently resurgent Fernando Verdasco in the quarters. His biggest triumph, though, was over a much bigger fish -- in the semis he took on four-time champ Roger Federer and, against all odds at the bet-at-home Open, came out the winner. Meanwhile Fabio Fognini, long an also-ran in this sport, took out hometown hero Tommy Haas before ousting clay court specialist Nicolas Almagro to make his second final of the year. And ultimately the Italian's experience won out -- after dropping the first set and saving three match points in a tiebreak, the twenty-six year wrapped up the tightest final of the weekend, extending his win streak to ten matches and two titles since Wimbledon. Suddenly a top-twenty player, he's proven that even underdogs have a little bite to them.

Whether this weekend's results show that the favorites have lost a bit of their sparkle or that the longshots have upped the ante remains to be seen. Certainly a loss this week doesn't mean a career is over -- nor that momentum will last in the months that come. But with even the most unheard-of players proving they can hit with the big guys, it sure will be fun watching them all fight it out.

A New World: Fed Cup Final Preview

Twenty years ago the two countries contesting this year's Fed Cup didn't even exist. Part of an Eastern Europe undergoing serious revolutions in the early nineties, they were making the biggest headlines far from the tennis court. But the defending champion Czechs and the barely initiated Serbs, playing for just the second time in the World Group, sure have come a long way in the past two decades, and the battle they put on this weekend could be one for the history books.

The Czech Singles

The singles rubbers could provide fireworks from the start -- both teams come with some top-grade talent, but there are questions over everyone's heads. Petra Kvitova is coming off her second trip to the WTA Championships, but the 2011 winner had to pull out after one round robin match in Istanbul with a viral illness. She had a somewhat slower start to this season -- at this time last year she was a stone's throw from the #1 ranking, these days she's just within the top ten. Still, with two titles this year and a greatly improved hardcourt record, she's easily the most accomplished of the bunch. She doesn't have a lot of history against her opponents, but she has won both matches she's played against the Serb stars in the past two years and might be the Czechs best chance to get on the board early.

Lucie Safarova has had a slightly more volatile year. She began 2012 with wins over Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Sam Stosur, and cracked the top twenty for the first time in her career back in August after reaching the Montreal semifinal. She's now at a career-high #17 ranking, but the twenty-five year old won only one match at her last three events and has notched eleven opening round losses this year. She also hasn't been the most clutch Fed Cup player for the Czechs, winning just six of ten rubbers she's played, and with a 4-7 record against her opponents it's going to be hard to turn that momentum around.

The Serbian Singles

The Serbs aren't without their own challenges, though, but Ana Ivanovic will be out to prove the comeback she's put together the last three year is worth some consideration. The former #1 hasn't won a title all year, but she did reach her first Major quarterfinal since 2008 and score victories over Caroline Wozniacki and Marion Bartoli in Indian Wells. Having almost halved her ranking in the past twelve months, she's starting to look like the player we know she can be -- she's only lost to three players out of the top fifty this year, and one of those was Venus Williams, so she's not putting up many "embarrassing" losses anymore. Still, it would be nice to see her perform more consistently against the top ten, and maybe score a victory or two against the biggest hitters.

Such consistency is exactly what Jelena Jankovic seems to be lacking these days. Another former top-ranked player, the twenty-seven year old has struggled to hold onto leads this year and squandered match points more than a few times during the season. She hasn't won a trophy in over two years and, while she made a couple finals this year, she lost both pretty handily and failed to make much of a dent at any of the Majors. Her only victory over a player ranked higher than her this year -- then-#5 Sam Stosur in Dubai -- came all the way back in February, and the vast majority of her losses since then have been to players ranked lower than her. On the plus side -- admittedly a small one -- she is 5-2 against the Czechs in singles and holds an impressive 27-7 career history in Fed Cup singles rubbers, so experience might give her and her team a lift. They might need it.

The Doubles Rubber

With the singles matches this weekend largely up for grabs, the doubles action takes on some added importance, and experience looks to be squarely on the side of the Czechs. Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka have both put in some solid singles performances this year, but together they've really shined. Runners-up at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the WTA Championships this year, they've also won four Tour titles and Olympic Silver. Comparatively the likely pairing of Bojana Jovanovski and Aleksandra Krunic is hugely untested. If the championship comes down to this rubber, odds certainly favor a repeat of last year, so the Serbs will certainly want to make a statement early, and hope they can wrap things up before it gets too heated.

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With so much depth on the Czech team, it seems like the defending champions have the slight advantage in this weekend's play. But if the leaders on the Serbian team play to their potential, they could easily tip the entire apple cart. And while such a revolution may be nothing compared to what these countries have endured in the past, it could set the stage for a new era in their tennis histories.