Taiwan were on the brink of relegation in their Fed Cup World Group II playoff against Italy on Saturday, as the visitors lost both opening singles rubbers to fall to a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five match at the Circolo Tennis in Barletta, Italy.
In a marathon first singles rubber that lasted five minutes short of three hours, Italian world No. 221 Martina Trevisan rallied from a set down to defeat world No. 298 Lee Ya-hsuan 2-6, 6-3, 12-10.
Both players converted 11 of 18 break points, but the Italian managed to conjure up 33 winners to Lee’s 16 to edge a tight opening battle.
Photo: Reuters
“I have never played in a match with so many breaks of serve — that was a first time,” Lee told the Fed Cup Web site. “The wind wasn’t really much of a problem and I made too many errors, but my fitness was okay. I wasn’t having any problems, even though it was a long match.”
“The key to the match was the strength of my will to win the match and I never gave up, even when there were problems with the serve. I got confidence when I finally held my serve and I was very nervous before the match started, and there was tension and some fear. That is why the serve was bad,” Trevisan said. “The feeling of winning the match after nearly three hours was fantastic and I was so happy about the result. I wanted to win that point for the team — nothing else.”
In the second singles rubber, Italian world No. 110 Sara Errani raced to a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Taiwanese world No. 372 Hsu Chieh-yu in just 60 minutes.
Photo: Reuters
Errani converted five of eight break points, while Hsu squandered all the five opportunities she created.
“She is the best player I have ever faced on a clay court, especially in that first set,” Hsu told the Fed Cup Web site. “I have been playing on clay lately, but her ball has so much spin and you cannot do anything with the shot. Then she comes into the net to finish the point. I like her style of play and it was a good learning experience.”
While Taiwan looked to be heading for relegation ahead of yesterday’s three rubbers, captain Wang Shi-ting remained determined.
“Lee is quite frustrated and upset at losing the first match, but we have to bounce back and prepare for tomorrow’s matches,” Wang told the Fed Cup Web site. “On clay against Italy it is difficult and while we are still in the tie, we made it very hard.”
Meanwhile, Romanian former world No. 1 professional tennis player Ilie Nastase was on Saturday sensationally kicked out of the Fed Cup after a foul-mouthed rant compounded his controversial racial slur over US world No. 2 Serena Williams’ unborn baby.
The 70-year-old Romanian Fed Cup team coach was escorted from the Constanta, Romania, venue where a World Group playoff was taking place against Britain after swearing at the umpire, as well as the British captain and a visiting player.
He was heard to call pregnant British team captain Anna Keovathong and Britsh world No. 7 Johanna Konta “fucking bitches.”
The day before, Nastase was overheard making derogatory remarks about Williams’ pregnancy.
“Let’s see what color it [the baby] has. Chocolate with milk?” he said in Romanian, remarks then reported widely internationally, including by a British reporter who he then berated, describing her as “stupid” and “ugly.”
The controversy in Romania overshadowed what was meant to be the weekend’s main Fed Cup business — the semi-finals.
They saw Belarus and Switzerland locked at 1-1 at the end of the first day in Minsk, while the US took the opening rubber against defending champions Czech Republic in Florida.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said that Nastase had been expelled from the tie against Britain for “serious misconduct” and hinted at further punishment.
After his slur against Williams, Nastase was still raging on Saturday.
He was warned twice by the umpire for unsportsmanlike conduct as Konta took on Romania’s Sorana Cirstea in the day’s second rubber.
“It’s not the opera, what’s your fucking problem?” Nastase screamed at the umpire.
Konta broke down in tears after the abuse and the match was held up for 25 minutes before Nastase was banished to the stands and then escorted out of the venue by security guards.
“His accreditation was removed and he will play no further part in the tie,” the ITF said in a statement. “The ITF has launched an investigation into this matter as well as previous comments made by Mr Nastase during the week. The ITF does not tolerate discriminatory and offensive language and behavior of any kind.”
Konta went on to beat Cirstea to level the tie at 1-1 after Simona Halep had seen off Britian’s Heather Watson.
“The abusive language of everybody who was involved snowballed,” Konta said.
Keothavong, who was reportedly propositioned by Nastase, despite being pregnant and married, said she was stunned by his behavior.
“What Nastase said to me and Johanna is language that is not appropriate for anyone to speak to any other human,” she said.
However, Cirstea leaped to the defense of Nastase and the crowd.
“The supervisor told me he stopped play because she [Konta] was crying. The Romanian public are quite fair and did not do anything out of the ordinary,” she said. “It was great to have Nastase’s experience on the bench ... it was a nice surprise to see that he is very human and caring.”
The semi-finals were reduced to a sideshow by the controversy.
In Minsk, Timea Bacsinszky beat Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-4, 7-5 to pull Switzerland level 1-1.
Additional reporting by AFP
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