France qualified
\nfor the Fed Cup final after a dramatic 3-2 win against Romania on Sunday at
\nhome. France will play the final in November against Australia, who eliminated
\nBelarus. It’s for the second time in history that Romania didn’t get past the
\nsemifinals, the first time being 46 years ago. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
France’s winning
\npoint was delivered by the pair Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic who won
\ntheir 3-set doubles match against the Romanian pair Simona Halep and Monica
\nNiculescu after a dramatic match. The difference was in the details in this electrifying
\nmatch in which both pairs gave their last ounce of energy. Garcia and
\nMladenovic won in the end, after 2 hours and 37 minutes, appearing somewhat
\nfresher in the final two games of the decisive set. Florin Segarceanu, the
\nnon-playing captain of Romania’s Fed Cup team, said after the match: The
\nplayers gave their all hoping to win and our dream to play the final is not
\nover. Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu fought for every ball, point and game,
\nsparing no physical and mental energy. They deserved to win the decisive
\ndoubles match, but a few points made all the difference. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Before the
\ndoubles match, Romania and France were tied 2-all. Both points were delivered
\nby world no. 2 Simona Halep, who won her singles matches against Kristina
\nMladenovic, ranked 66th in the world, and Caroline Garcia, ranked 21st.
\nHalep said after the marathon match against Garcia that she fought for every
\npoint and the fact that she didn’t give up, even when she was down four games
\nto none in the first set, raised her confidence in herself and gave her a
\nmental advantage against her opponent. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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\n
<\/p>\n
In the two other
\nsingles matches, Mihaela Buzarnescu, no. 30 in the world, lost to Caroline
\nGarcia on Saturday, while Irina Begu, world no. 83, who replaced Buzarnescu for
\nthe final match at the last minute, was defeated by Pauline Parmentier, who had
\nherself replaced Kristina Mladenovic. At the press conference at the end, a teary-eyed
\nIrina Begu said she was disappointed she didn’t win a point and was unable to
\nhelp the team. Begu thanked Simona Halep for her dedication in the matches
\nagainst France. The French players Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia also
\nsaid their opponents Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu were incredible, as were
\nthe Romanian fans in the audience. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Next year,
\nRomania will play the Fed Cup quarterfinals, where they may face the Czech
\nRepublic, the United States, Spain or Germany.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanias extraordinary run at the 2019 edition of the Fed Cup ended in the semifinals after suffering a close defeat at the hands of France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[28939],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-81556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-tennis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n