{"id":17787,"date":"2024-11-19T08:39:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T08:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=17787"},"modified":"2024-11-19T08:39:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T08:39:07","slug":"italy-into-bjk-cup-final-with-win-over-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=17787","title":{"rendered":"Italy into BJK Cup final with win over Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jasmine Paolini’s Italy reached their second successive Billie Jean King Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Poland, who had been given a glimmer of hope by five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek.<\/b><\/p>\n

World number four Paolini and her team-mate Sara Errani clinched the deciding doubles 7-5 7-5 against Swiatek and Katarzyna Kawa after an extraordinary second-set comeback in Malaga.<\/p>\n

Twelve months ago, four-time champions Italy were beaten in the BJK Cup final by Canada.<\/p>\n

They will discover their 2024 final opponents on Tuesday, when Great Britain take on Slovakia in the second semi-final (11:00 GMT).<\/p>\n

“It was tough today,” said 28-year-old Paolini. “The intensity was insane. <\/p>\n

“You have to give everything for Italy, for my team. I found the energy and I’m really happy.”<\/p>\n

World number 78 Lucia Bronzetti was the first to strike for Italy, defeating Poland’s Magda Linette – ranked 40 places higher – in straight sets.<\/p>\n

Her 6-4 7-6 (7-3) victory laid the path for Paolini, who was bidding to beat Swiatek for the first time.<\/p>\n

But while Paolini won the opening set, her first in four meetings with the Polish world number two, Swiatek prevailed 3-6 6-4 6-4 to send the tie to a decider.<\/p>\n

Paolini and Errani, who won Olympic doubles gold together in Paris this summer, saved three set points before breaking the Poles’ serve and then clinching the opener.<\/p>\n

After being broken in the first game of the second set, Swiatek and Kawa won five consecutive games for a 5-1 lead. A match tie-break looked certain, but the Italians had other ideas.<\/p>\n

They too reeled off five games for the chance to serve for the match, and with it, a place in the final.<\/p>\n

They did so at the first opportunity, cueing huge celebrations from the team in blue.<\/p>\n

The 2024 BJK Cup champions will be crowned on Wednesday night, with the final getting under way at 16:00 GMT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jasmine Paolini’s Italy reached their second successive Billie Jean King Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Poland, who had been given a glimmer of hope by five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek. World number four Paolini and her team-mate Sara Errani clinched the deciding doubles 7-5 7-5 against Swiatek and Katarzyna Kawa after an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}