Italy became back-to-back Billie Jean King Cup finalists after ousting Iga Swiatek’s Poland team in a thrilling tie that went down to the wire.
Italy were pushed all the way in this memorable semi-final and ultimately prevailed thanks to a stunning doubles performance, in particular from the experienced Sara Errani.
She and Jasmine Paolini combined to beat Swiatek and Katarzyna Kawa 7-5 7-5 to give Italy another chance at winning the Billie Jean King Cup trophy this Wednesday.
Remarkably, Errani hit a gutsy underarm serve on match point to throw Swiatek off and eventually drew the error in the rally. As soon as Swiatek’s shot went long, Errani fell to the ground in celebration and there were emotional scenes as the Italian team stormed the court.
“I feel it and I did it,” Errani said post-match of the moment she decided to do an underarm serve. “I just advised Jasmine after [the] first serve, so it’s just I feel it and I did it, just like that, not thinking too much.
“Playing for our country, for Italy, it’s always really special. So I have to thank Tathi [Garbine] to make me be in the team again. I’m very happy, I’m very proud to be part of this team. Was a special day today. We fight a lot.”
They achieved it despite world No. 2 Swiatek’s best efforts. Both Paolini and Swiatek spent more than four hours on court overall on Monday. As well as the doubles, their singles match was a high-quality epic lasting more than two-and-a-half hours, culminating in Swiatek finally snatching a well-deserved comeback win 3-6 6-4 6-4.