Italian tennis players defeated Slovakia and won the BJK Cup

Málaga (Spain) – Italian tennis players won the Billie Jean King Cup. In the final in Málaga today, they defeated Slovakia 2:0 after only singles matches and won their fifth title in the team competition formerly known as the Fed Cup. The decisive second point was won by world number four Jasmine Paolini.

Lucia Bronzetti took the lead for the Italians, who knocked out the Czech tennis players Polka in the semi-finals. She defeated Viktória Hrunčáková 6:2, 6:4. The finalist of this year’s Roland Garros and Wimbledon, Paoliniová then outclassed Rebecca Šramková 6:2 and 6:1 in the singles match.

Paolini ended the season in which she also won Olympic gold in doubles with Sara Errani in Paris. There was no double resolution today. “It’s been an incredible year. Crazy. To end it like this, with a trophy, I can’t say more about it. I’m just enjoying this moment,” said the Italian heroine, who also played in the finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year.

Captain Tathiana Garbin’s selection won the first trophy in eleven years and made amends for last year’s final failure with Canada. In the team competition, the Italian women also triumphed in 2006, 2009 and 2010. The Slovak women, who unexpectedly eliminated the American, Australian and British women in Málaga, did not take the chance for a second title after 2002.

Bronzetti, the 78th player in the world, won for the second time in Málaga and followed up her semi-final triumph over Poland’s Magda Linette. She won the first set against Hrunčáková thanks to three breaks. In the second set, she turned around the unfavorable development from 2:4 and ended the match with a clean game on service.

Paolini was also successful in two sets. Šramková won the match against the 43rd player in the world in 66 minutes and allowed her opponent only three games. She took her serve five times, she lost it herself only once.

The 28-year-old Šramková only kept pace in the opening set to a 2:2 level. Paolini then won four games in a row to take the lead. Also in the second set, the Italian had the development under control. From 2:1, she again won the remaining four games and used the second match point on service.

Thanks to their fifth triumph in the team competition, the Italian women moved up in the historical rankings to a joint fourth place with Russia and Spain. Only Australia (7), the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia (11) and the USA (18) have more titles.

Sport tennis King’s final PHOTO FLASH