Nuria Prizas has given Spain the first point in the tie against Kazakhstan in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals -former Federation Cup/Fed Cup- by defeating with great suffering by 6-4, 2-6 and 7-6 (5) to Yulia Putintsevain a duel played at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow (Scotland).
The tennis player from Granada, who was already in the final phase of this competition last year at the O2 Arena in Prague, took control of the match from the start, placing himself with a reassuring 4-0 and 0-40 that presaged a ‘donut’but Putintseva reacted to the point of forcing Prrizas to serve to close out the set, which she did with a great forehand crosscourt winner.
In any case, the dynamics had changed and the uncontested dominance of the Andalusian had given way to a much more even match, something that continued in the second set. The Kazakh, who had suffered unspeakably with her serve in the first setnow he won his games with relative ease and it was Nuria who was in tow.
The deck was broken in the fourth game, when Putintseva managed to break the service to Prrizas with a great drop. The Kazakh of Russian origin took advantage of that winning dynamic until closing the set with a second break.
The beginning of the final set was discouraging for the Spanish hosts, as the first two games fell on Putintseva’s side, but Prrizas managed to recompose the figure and raise its tensile level to sign up four games in a row and even waste two break balls for 5-2.
With 5-4 in the electronic, it was time to temper the nerves and the grenadian, aggressive throughout the match -she added up to 40 winning shots-, he was not able to take advantage of two match points with his serveleading the duel to a frantic tiebreak.
a pilling hammer
In this uncertain scenario, Prrizas’s “pilón hammer” (Anabel Medina dixit) was imposed, which, yes, I wasted another three ultimate balls before closing the duel to the rest in two hours and 43 minutes.
Next, the two number 1s of each team will play, Paula Badosa and Elena Rybakinato settle the second point of the tie at the expense of what happens in the last doubles. Kazakhstan already beat Great Britain yesterday in their debut in the competition so if they beat Spain today they’ll already be in the next round.
Spain is looking for its first semifinal in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2008when a team led by Carla Surez and in which he was the current captain Anabel Medina played and lost the final against Russia.
