Petra Kvitova to lead Czech Republic in the Fed Cup tie against Italy – Tennis News
Czech world number three, Petra Kvitova, is set to lead her side in the Federation Cup semi-final tie against the strong Italian squad in the second last week of April. She will return to the arena after an injury lay-off of almost
two months that kept her out of the tennis circuit. The tie will be played at Ostrava, Czech Republic on April 21-22.
The main advantage for the reigning Wimbledon champions is that she will not be travelling away from her home town and look to make a comeback in front of her home crowd that will surely boost her morale.
She will be accompanied by the likes of the Family Circle Cup finalist, Lucie Safarova, who is ranked 23 in the world and the most successful Czech doubles team in the world, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. Both the players
in the doubles team chosen to contest against the Italian squad are ranked in the Top-10 players of the world with Hlavackova cementing her spot at number eight and her opponent sitting smooth at the 10th place.
Kvitova missed action in Miami and Indian Wells due to illness and injury and in a statement that was issued from her stated that she has started missing playing tennis and wants to make a thumping comeback to the tennis arena.
The third ranked Czech further added in her statement, “It's no good analysing the nomination, the key thing is who will play and how, and who will win the three points we need to advance to the finals.”
The captain of Czech Federation Cup team, Petr Pala, is convinced her elite players will not disappoint her at all. The tie will be tough and both teams have equal chances of winning. However, the odds might tilt towards Czech
Republic due to home advantage but the experience players from Italy are capable of producing majestic upsets on their day.
Czech Republic is the reigning champions of the Federation Cup and so far they had a successful title defence, ousting the likes of a versatile German team in the quarter-final tie. They defeated the hot favourite Russian squad
in Moscow last November to life the trophy for the first time in the history of tennis.
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