China won the Fed Cup cross-strait battle at the National Tennis Center in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Friday, beating Taiwan 3-0 in their Group 1 Asia/Oceania showdown.
Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei won the first set of her Group B singles match against Tang Hao-chen 7/5 in a tiebreak, but Tang then started to up her game and she took the second set 6-4. That broke Chan’s resilience and Tang cruised to a 6-1 victory in the final set.
The second rubber saw China’s Wang Qiang take on Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen.
Once again the first set went to a tiebreak, but this time it was China who won it. Wang then won a crucial break of serve in the second set and that was all she needed to take a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory and hand China an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Tang and Zhou Yi-miao then defeated Chan and Chang 6-3, 6-4 in the doubles to secure the whitewash.
Ultimately, though, it was not enough for China to reach the promotion playoff and they were due to play Thailand in the third-place playoff yesterday.
Uzbekistan sealed the place in today’s promotion playoff courtesy of a 2-1 victory over South Korea in Group B.
They were forced to do it the hard way, though, when Lee So-ra defeated Arina Folts 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) in the first singles match.
Sabine Sharipova pulled it back to 1-1 with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Han Sung-hee in the second singles, before Uzbekistan’s Nigina Abduraimova and Akgul Amanmuradova defeated Kang Seo-kyung and Yoo Mi 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the doubles.
That set up a meeting with Kazakhstan yesterday. The hosts’ booked their place with a win over Thailand in Group A on Thursday.
South Korea were forced into a relegation playoff yesterday against India, who were beaten 3-0 by Thailand in Group A on Friday.
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