Billie Jean King Cup: Light Blue eliminated

Italy is already out of the Billie Jean King Cup

Italy’s adventure at the Finals is over. Italy lost 2-0 to Canada in the second match valid for Group A of the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals 2022, scheduled through Sunday in Glasgow on the indoor fast court of the Emirates Arena.

For Tathiana Garbin’s Italian women’s team, having lost the first singles match had already been a definitive sentence: after the defeat (3-0) suffered on Wednesday against Switzerland, in fact, Italy needed a 3-0 win to continue to hope. In the first singles, however, Elisabetta Cocciaretto (no. 65 WTA) succumbed 76(3) 63, in an hour and 51 minutes of play to Bianca Andreescu (no. 45 WTA), once again paying for a bit of tension in the key moments (ahead 5-2 in the first fraction she missed a set point), but still showing that she can compete very well with opponents higher than her in the rankings.

Then came the sharp defeat of Martina Trevisan (No. 28 WTA), who succumbed 60 60 in just 44 minutes of play to Leylah Fernandez (No. 40 WTA).The 29-year-old left-hander from Florence had beaten the 20-year-old from Montreal, also a left-hander, in June in the quarters of Roland Garros, but on clay. Fernandez was a finalist at last year’s US Open.

Finally in the doubles final Lucia Bronzetti and Jasmine Paolini were beaten 61 61 in 46 minutes by Gabriela Dabrowski and Leylah Fernandez.

For Canada it was the third success in four confrontations with Italy: in fact, the North American team had also won in the first round of the 1995 World Group and in the quarterfinals of the Consolation draw of the 1971 World Group; the Italian team, on the other hand, had scored in the first round of the 1984 World Group.

Tathiana Garbin began by commenting on Cocciaretto’s match, “Today was a bit of a tough day. By a whisker we didn’t win the first set with Cocciaretto, however I liked how Elisabetta interpreted the match compared to yesterday, she was 5-2 up and missed a set point, but she was much more proactive. She gained more experience trying to do something more, which was what I, her coach Fausto Scolari and Vittorio Magnelli had asked her yesterday. She has to learn how to manage emotions in such important contexts, but I think it is only a matter of time, she is a very young girl who still has a lot to learn and expresses a really high level of tennis already.

He then continued with Trevisan’s match: “Unfortunately after the first match we lost we knew we were out of the competition, maybe Trevisan’s focus went down because we had set the match with a strategy from the back court and with a build-up with some more spin to try to make her opponent play badly, with whom moreover she had already played against at Roland Garros managing tactically very well the match. Here the surface is very different, much faster, and Fernandez didn’t let us breathe for a moment, so credit to her for being on our necks the whole time.”

Finally, a thought also about the doubles match: “In the doubles we tried this new Paolini/Bronzetti pair, which had already been proposed in Cluj. In my opinion they are quite well matched, but they have to find a number of adaptations especially on such fast surfaces. There is a lot of work to be done, certainly in this competition an important component like Camila Giorgi who always gave a great contribution to the team was missing, however looking at the future I am really happy and confident about what we can build.”

Elisabetta Cocciaretto analyzed her defeat this way, “I started the match very well by playing my game aggressively and staying close to Andreescu. Then I backed off a bit, I should have stepped forward and not suffered her game. She is a player who likes to lead, who goes into trouble if she finds an aggressive opponent in front of her. At the same time Andreescu raised the level in the second set and I slowed down. In spite of this I have to try to think positive even though I am a little disappointed that I did not take advantage of the opportunities I had in the first set and could not bring the point to the team. However, I am happy and grateful for the opportunity I had to represent Italy.”