Star flip Elise Mertens has come up trumps to salvage Belgium’s hopes within the Billie Jean King Cup – and he or she might now threaten Australia’s development to the semi-finals in a winner-takes-all contest in Glasgow.
Mertens needed to sprint from the WTA Finals in Texas on Sunday the place she had received the doubles title – virtually lacking her three-leg marathon journey within the course of – earlier than arriving in Scotland late on Tuesday night time.
Clearly in no state to play in Wednesday morning’s singles towards Slovakia, Mertens, the world No.29, needed to watch in disappointment as teammates Maryna Zanevska and Ysaline Bonaventure each misplaced their rubbers.
But with the tie already misplaced, Mertens emerged for the doubles, taking part in fantastically in a good-looking straight-sets victory for the lack of simply three video games alongside Kirsten Flipkens.
Despite the general 2-1 loss to Slovakia, who had been crushed 2-1 by Australia on Tuesday, the doubles retains Belgium’s hopes alive as they meet Alicia Molik’s staff within the decider on Thursday.
Australia will qualify for Saturday’s semis in the event that they win the tie, however the Belgians will undergo in the event that they win 3-0.
If Belgium win 2-1, it’ll come right down to the variety of units received and misplaced, so Australia might nonetheless doubtlessly lose and undergo.
Belgium captain Johan van Herck mentioned he knew the doubles win was “our only chance to stay alive” as he heaped reward on Mertens’ efforts.
“It was quite clear that Elise to play singles was not an option … It’s already amazing to see the level she gets being here, arriving yesterday evening at 10.30pm at the hotel, and see the attitude of what she brings on the court. Pretty amazing.”
Mertens revealed that after profitable the end-of-season WTA doubles with Veronika Kudermetova in Fort Worth, she needed to rush to the airport, check-in with simply two minutes left and dash for the gate to catch the primary of three flights through Madrid and London to Glasgow.
“I was, like, ‘Oh my god, I’m not going to make it’. We rushed. I barely showered. You smelled it yesterday evening (when I arrived),” she laughed.
Asked if she is going to play in the important thing rubber towards Australian No.1 Ajla Tomljanovic on Thursday, Mertens, the highest-ranked participant within the tie, mentioned: “We have to discuss it with everyone – who is ready to play, who is maybe less ready to play – but it’s definitely an option.”
Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova, who had misplaced to Tomljanovic on Tuesday, and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova – crushed by Australia’s different singles participant Storm Sanders – each rebounded with singles wins nevertheless it was not sufficient to maintain their staff within the event.
In the opposite early tie, Belinda Bencic beat Jasmine Paolini 7-5 6-3 and Jil Teichmann saved a match level en path to beating Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-5) as Switzerland defeated Italy.
World No.13 Paula Badosa received her Cup debut 6-2 3-6 6-4 towards Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina to offer Spain a 2-0 lead of their Group C conflict.
The Spanish might transfer into the semi-finals in the event that they beat hosts Great Britain on Thursday.
In the late match, the United States’ ‘McCoco’ pair – Coco Gauff and Caty McNally – received their decisive doubles match over Poland’s Magda Linette and Alijca Rosolska 6-1 6-2 to clinch the tie 2-1.
