The 2013 season of Fed Cup kicked off at venues around the world Saturday, with the Czech Republic taking a commanding 2-0 lead over Australia but the other three first round ties all tied at 1-1.
Petra Kvitova scored the team’s first point, rallying from 4-2 down in the first set and eventually beating Jarmila Gajdosova, 76(2) 63. The Czechs, who have conquered the international competition the last two years running, looked very strong in front of their home crowd at the Cez Arena in Ostrava.
“The first match of a tie is always tough to play,” Kvitova said. “I don’t remember much about the first set but I knew I had to win the tie-break, and then I got a good start in the second set. I think winning the tie-break helped me believe in myself in the second set. I’m very happy to win this match today.”
Italy and the United States were locked at 1-1 after Sara Errani cruised past Jamie Hampton, 62 61, and Varvara Lepchenko won a dramatic three-setter against Roberta Vinci, 26 64 75, originally leading 5-1 in the third set, letting Vinci claw back to 5-5, then winning two last games to close it out.
“I’ve really been working on keeping my focus from the beginning to the end in matches, but I think when I was up in the third set I lost the focus a little bit,” Lepchenko said. “A lot of players have trouble closing out matches, and today it happened to be me, but I learned a lot from the experience.”
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http://en.africatopsports.com/2013/02/08/olympics-womens-world-rankings/