Italy, against the ropes in the Billie Jean King Cup

Anhelina Kalinina, world number 48, defeated the Italian Tyra Grant (150) this Saturday 6-3, 6-4in a match of one hour and 25 minutes, and advanced to Ukraine in the semifinal of the Billie Jean King Cup.

On the indoor hard court of the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center Arena, in China, The Ukrainian imposed her greatest experience and placed his country one victory away from reaching the first final in its history.

Jazmín Paolini (20) will need to beat Elina Svitolina in the second singlesnumber seven in the world, to tie the tie and keep alive the possibility of Italy playing its fourth consecutive final. If Svitolina wins, Ukraine will qualify to face the Czech Republic on Sunday.

Grant sustained the exchange for the first five games, relying on a first serve with which she managed to prevent Kalinina from assuming control from the rest. The Italian mixed deep shots with some drop shots and reached the tie at 2-2, although she barely found any loopholes when the Ukrainian had serve.

The match began to tilt in the sixth game. A double fault and an error by Grant provided Kalinina with two break opportunities, both neutralized by the Italian, who first relied on the serve and then entered the court to take the initiative.

The Ukrainian kept up the pressure, got a third break point and converted it with a forehand return winner to go ahead 4-2. He then consolidated the advantage without allowing a reaction and closed the first set 6-3 in 33 minutes.

Kalinina placed 88% of her first serves in play during that set and won 77% of the points contested with them. Grant did not have any chance to break and always had to play from behind on the scoreboard.

The Italian began the second set with a double fault and was exposed again. She saved three breaking balls, one of them with a direct serve, but ended up giving up the fourth after another exchange dominated by Kalinina.

Grant had his only chance to come back from the deficit in the fourth game. She reached a drop shot from her rival and resolved the point into the net to obtain a break ball, although Kalinina neutralized it and overcame a twelve-point game that allowed her to go up 3-1.

The Ukrainian no longer faced threats with the service. Grant held on to stay close and saved two match points when Kalinina served at 5-4, but gave up in the third by sending her last shot wide.

Kalinina did special damage on Grant’s second serve, which only won 40% of those points, compared to 65% for the Ukrainian. The world number 48 finished with 67 points won compared to her rival’s 54.

“I was very nervous and the support of the Ukrainian fans helped me a lot,” Kalinina admitted after the match. “I’m very proud of the effort and how I handled the match, especially at the end,” she added.