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Russian Tennis Federation accused of “ugly” tactics in Billie Jean King Cup victory
The rebranded Billie Jean King Cup, formerly known as the Fed Cup, made its return last week as 12 countries arrived in Prague for the event known as the World Cup of women’s tennis.
The Russian Tennis Federation put their country back in the winners’ circle for the first time since 2008, as world No 28 Daria Kasatkina needed just over an hour to secure a 6-2 6-4 victory over Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann in the first tie before world No 40 Liudmila Samsonova – subbed in at the last minute – defeated recent Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic on the final day to clinch victory for her country.
However, it was originally world No 12 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who was set to take on Bencic in the second tie, with Team Switzerland nominating the world No 17 for the clash, but after this year’s French Open runner-up became injured, Samsonova stepped in just 20 minutes before the match began, much to the dismay of Team Switzerland.
The world No 40 had a 2-0 win-loss record against Bencic, with both matches coming earlier this year, and the Swiss team later slammed the Russian Tennis Federation for the last-minute change.
“I think it was ugly to be honest, and I just think in the end the good will win and we will come back and win this title,” Bencic said, after her team lost the BJK Cup.
Meanwhile, team captain Heinz Guenthardt said: “It’s a little bit hard how it unfolded because if you feel like you’ve been beaten just by a better team, that’s fine, but there’s just this slight suspicion here that wasn’t just the case. It was a bit manipulated, so that hurts a little bit more.”
Looking ahead to this week, Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray are back in action, in Linz and Stockholm respectively, while the WTA Finals kicks off on Wednesday (November 10).
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