Italy Make It To Back-To-Back Billie Jean King Cup Finals

Italy, Billie Jean King Cup Finals
Team Italy (photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images for ITF)

MALAGA/WASHINGTON, November 19, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

Italy are four-time Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals champions but have not won this season-ending team competition in 11 years. Their defeat in the final last year to Canada was as close as they have come since their 2013 triumph.

On Monday evening in Malaga, Italy and Poland valiantly fought for a place in this year’s championship round that stretched across seven hours of riveting action and kept spirited fans from both countries cheering loudly and proudly for their respective teams inside Martín Carpena Arena.

With the semifinal tie level at 1-all, following a split of the two earlier singles matches, Italy pulled off a miraculous comeback to defeat Poland 2-1. Olympic gold medalists Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani recovered from down 1-5, love-15 in the second set to pull off a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Iga Swiatek and Katarzyna Kawa, which gave Italy the decisive doubles point.

Errani successfully pulled off a surprising underarm serve on match point that caught Swiatek off guard and enabled the Italians to advance to Wednesday’s title final against either Slovakia or Great Britain, which play its semifinal on Tuesday afternoon.

Errani was asked during her team’s late-night news conference what was going through her mind before pulling off the underarm miracle. “Well, this year happened often, many times. … I feel it and I did it. I just advised Jasmine after first serve. So, it’s just I feel it and I did it, just like that. Not thinking too much,” she said, smiling.

With the core of Italy’s 2023 BJK Cup squad in Malaga this year – Paolini, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Lucia Bronzetti and Martina Trevisan – plus the experience of doubles specialist Errani, who returned to the squad for the first time since 2019, the Italians have marched into their second straight final after defeating Japan 2-1 in the quarterfinal round and Poland in the semifinals.

“Playing for our country, for Italy, it’s always really special,” Errani said. “So, I have to thank Tathi (team captain Tathiana Garbin) to make me be in the team again. I’m very happy. I’m very proud to be part of this team. Was a special day today. We fight a lot.”

The 78th-ranked Bronzetti justified her nomination to play in the opening singles match instead of No. 53 Cocciaretto and got Italy off to a flying start with an important point that gave her team a 1-0 lead. She defeated No. 38 Magna Linette, 6-4, 7-6 (3), in an hour and 47 minutes by handling nerves better than her Polish opponent – especially during the second-set tie-break. It was the 25-year-old Italian’s first-ever singles point in Billie Jean King Cup play.

“The tension was high and also the pressure,” Bronzetti said during her post-match news conference.

Bronzetti won 73 percent of her first-serve points, broke Linette’s serve four times in nine chances and outpointed her opponent 74-67.

“I said to myself to give my 100 percent, to fight for every point. At the end, the result is just a result,” Bronzetti admitted. “I mean, I won, so I’m so proud and happy, because I love to play for Italy. I love to play in this team. So, yeah, keep going.”

After winning the opening set and gaining a 4-1 advantage in the second, things got a bit complicated for Bronzetti. Asked how she kept her focus and belief in herself, Bronzetti replied: “I think that she played a little better in since 4-1, and yeah, maybe she played better. I was a little bit in tension, but at the end, I said, ‘Okay, you are in the court, you have to fight, and if you fight for every point, you go out from the court, that you are okay with yourself.

“So, yeah, just play every point and that’s it.”

Then, in the second singles match, between a pair of Top-5 players, World No. 2 Swiatek and No. 4 Paolini, it lived up to its billing in going the distance. Three gripping sets left Swiatek a winner, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, in two hours and 36 minutes. She hit eight aces and struck 27 additional winners overall, and converted four of 10 break points. Total points were even at 105 for each player.

Swiatek embraced the pressure, never backing down. She broke Paolini in the 10th game of the final set, winning a 13-shot rally that ended with the Italian hitting a forehand well beyond the baseline. The victory was Swiatek’s 11th Top-10 win of the season and her 64th of the year – and it gave Poland another chance to reach the final.

“I still have work to do,” Swiatek said during her on-court interview, with a towel draped over her shoulders. “So, no time to celebrate.”

Paolini summed up her feelings after losing to Swiatek for the third time in her career – second time this season after bowing in the Roland-Garros final – and how she tried to keep herself focused for doubles.

“I had some chances in the second set and, maybe, also in the third, but I have to say congrats to her because she played unbelievable in important points,” she said.

“With the doubles, I tried to, you know, to find the energy after the loss. I said to myself, ‘Look, we have to play, we have to try to win, and let’s do it and keep the energy up. I was repeating this to myself.”

After a 30-minute respite, the two European teams returned to battle it out in doubles. After Italy won the opening set 7-5, going ahead with a break in the 11th game, they broke Poland to start the second set. Far from being over, Poland immediately broke back and won five straight games to take a commanding 5-1 lead. Along the way, the Polish won three consecutive deciding points – one of them with the help of a net cord.

From 1-5 down, a determined Paolini and Errani went to work. Game by game, they fought back and proceeded to win the last six games to pull off an improbable victory over Poland, which earlier beat Spain 2-0 and Czechia 2-1 to advance to the semifinal round.

Errani’s gutsy move to pull out an underarm serve on match point threw Poland for a curve and, soon, Swiatek’s sixth-shot return went long. Once it did, Italy began celebrating its triumph. As Errani fell to the ground, her Italian teammates raced onto the court to join her and Paolini, who spent more than four hours on court Monday between her singles and doubles matches. There was plenty of joy to be found among them.

“We are so happy,” said Errani, who along with Paolini are ranked No. 4 in the world. “I’m so happy to win this match and to be in the final, again. We will fight after tomorrow, and let’s see what happens.”

 

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