Linette overtakes Poland with a successful sprint against Sorribes

Sara Sorribes wasted a 3-0 lead in the third set and, faced with a final sprint of success from her rival, she let the first point of the Spain-Poland tie escape in the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, in Malaga, by 7- 6 (6), 2-6 and 6-4

The winning team of this match will face the Czech Republic on Saturday in the quarterfinals. The two numbers one of each team, Paula Badosa and Iga Swiatek, will play in the second round.

Sorribes recovered twice in the first set of a break down. The woman from Castellón, 106th in the world, anchored at the back of the court, contained the attacks of Linette, 38th WTA, until 6-6. But in the tiebreaker, although Sorribes aimed for victory with a 0-3, she could not remain as solid in the following points and lost 8-6.

The 3-0 that the Spaniard had at the beginning of the second set, after a step forward in aggression, was a cushion that she used to lead the way. The Pole, on the other hand, accumulated errors and missed the set without being able to do anything to avoid it.

The fight for the third set was titanic. Sorribes took the lead again 3-0, but Linette made up the deficit after a marathon sixth game. The Spaniard’s parallels began to go long, her returns often ran into the net and her rival took note of the slump (4-3).

The game started again and again. At 5-5, the Pole served to win. Sorribes saved two match points before Linette, first in the net and then with a great serve that forced a bad return from the Spaniard, closed the match.

The winner finished with 79 unforced errors, compared to 26 for the loser. But he took a bigger risk and found his reward.

It was a long and emotional match from the opening moments. The Spanish players wore a crepe on their kits as a sign of mourning for the victims of the Dana, as well as the inscription ‘Fuerza Valencia’ on the back of their jackets. During the performance of the Spanish anthem they held a senyera and Sorribes could not hold back his tears.

The two teams have met three times in the BJKC, with the Spanish team 2-1. The last confrontation was in 2023, with a Hispanic victory.

If the doubles is played, those chosen to play are, in principle, Marina Bassols Ribera / Jessica Bouzas Maneiro for Spain and Magdalena Frech / Katarzyna Kawa for Poland.

This tie should have been played last Wednesday, but was postponed due to adverse weather conditions.