Champions Italy overcome Czech Republic to reach Fed Cup final
Italy 4-0 Czech Republic
Italy, the defending champions, swept into the final of the Fed Cup this afternoon after establishing a 4-0 lead against the Czech Republic in Rome.
Holding a 2-0 lead overnight, Italy were overwhelming favourites to progress and Flavia Pennetta wasted little time in settling the tie with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over Petra Kvitkova, who was a late replacement for the injured Lucie Safarova.
The Italian No1 quickly established a 4-1 first-set lead but the 20-year-old Kvitkova hit back to force a tie-break which Pennetta clinched on a double fault. The second set was more straightforward, with Pennetta racing through it to give Italy a place in the final for the fourth time in five years.
“It was very tough after the tie-break because I was thinking about it,” said Kvitkova. “I made a good start [in the second set] but I don’t know what happened after that.”
In the remaining singles rubber Sara Errani came into the line-up to defeat Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 6-2. Italy will face either the United States or Russia in the final with the tie level at 1-1 after yesterday’s play.
Froch threatens Super Six withdrawal
• Nottingham fighter angry over proposed venue change
• WBC title loss to Mikkel Kessler was first defeat of career
Carl Froch, struggling to cope with the first defeat of his career, is threatening to walk away from the Super Six tournament if his next fight, against the German-based Armenian Arthur Abraham, is switched from Nottingham to Berlin.
He took his loss to Mikkel Kessler hard after he looked closely at the scorecards that gave the Dane a lop-sided points verdict and Froch’s WBC super-middleweight title in a heaving Messecenter in the normally quiet backwater of Herning on Saturday night. “It would mean me pulling out of the tournament if they forced me to fight in Berlin,” Froch said. “It has already been agreed that I would fight at home, fight away and fight back at home.”
Froch narrowly outpointed the American Andre Dirrell in the first stage of the tournament, in his home town of Nottingham last October, and said he was happy coming into Kessler’s backyard. However, he revealed after his first loss in 27 fights that he almost pulled out with a perforated ear-drum suffered in sparring and, believing the volcanic ash fallout from Iceland was going to wreck the promotion, he was not as focused as he should have been.
While Froch had some cause to be upset after what was a hugely physical and tense encounter, he may like to reconsider his post-fight threat to walk away given he has no title to bargain with – not to mention the harsh financial penalties the Showtime paymasters would initiate.
Any thoughts he may have about switching his attention to the one world-class super-middleweight not involved, the IBF champion Lucian Bute, should be tempered by the acknowledgment that the Canadian boxes for the rival HBO.
Froch’s promoter Mick Hennessy admitted later that the agreement for his next fight to be in the UK was verbal – and their German partners, Sauerland Event, will be in no mood to compromise if they think they can make more money staging it in Berlin.
Froch did not envisage his trip to Denmark ending in such acrimony. Despite the setback in training – which he said affected his balance when he was hit – he knows he did not press his advantage against Kessler when he should have. Had he done so, he might have stopped the extraordinarily tough Dane for the first time.
The curiosities of the scoring system – and its perverse implementation by the Belgian judge Roger Tillman – led to unseemly rancour in the aftermath.
But complaints from the Froch camp that Tilleman had given only one round to Froch were misguided; while he scored it 117-111 to Kessler, he gave Froch rounds five, 11 and 12.
Tilleman’s compatriot Daniel van de Wiele scored it 116-112, giving Kessler eight rounds of the 12, while the Italian Guido Cavalleri reckoned Kessler won seven rounds and Froch five for a more reasonable assessment of 115-113.
None of them saw an even round in a fight in which there were good arguments to do so. I scored the contest 116-115 for Froch, with three rounds even, five to the champion and four to the challenger.
TV replays suggested Kessler might have been given a count when he went to the floor in the fifth, but the Canadian referee, Michael Griffin, could hardly be faulted for missing it as it came at the end of a messy exchange.
It is difficult to see how Froch did not win the sixth as he repeatedly shook Kessler, whose composure deserted him. Nevertheless, it was Froch’s failure to build on his growing dominance at that halfway stage which cost him the fight.
He stood off as Kessler found his second wind, busting Froch’s nose with a perfect short right in the eighth that sent blood exploding from the Nottingham man’s face across the canvas.
A rousing finish in the 12th, one of the best conclusions to a world title fight in a long time, came too late for Froch.
Rangers win Scottish Premier League with 1-0 win over Hibernian
Kyle Lafferty goal earns Rangers 1-0 win over Hibernian and seals second successive Scottish title.
