The United States has advanced to the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup women’s team tennis tournament. In Bratislava, the Americans took a 2-0 lead over host Slovakia and secured a spot among the top eight teams in the world.
Bernarda Pera had a tough 2-0 (7:6(2), 7:5) win over Rebecca Sramkova, while Hailey Baptiste won by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4) over Renata Jamrichova in an hour and 28 minutes. After those two singles matches, the Americans, led by Lindsay Davenport, gained an insurmountable lead over Slovakia.
“It was extraordinary, especially because of the crowd. There was an extraordinary energy on the court, but I’m glad we qualified for the final phase”, said Hailey Baptiste.
The finals of the Billie Jean King Cup tournament will be played between September 16 and 21 in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Hosts China, last year’s champions Italy, as well as Great Britain, Spain, Ukraine, Japan and Kazakhstan have also qualified for the final phase of the competition, which will be held on a hard indoor surface.
