(Los Angeles) Alison Riske brought the first point for the United States against Ukraine on Friday in the qualifying match for the Billie Jean King Cup finals, beating Dayana Yastremska 7-6, 7-5, s winning the longest tiebreaker in the history of the singles event.
Posted at 4:36 p.m.
It’s at 34and point, after thirty minutes of a stifling showdown, that Riske (43and world) won the decisive game 18-16 and with it the first set, having in the process saved four set points against her.
The sequel seemed to be much quicker, as the American came away 5-1. But Yastremska (93and) did not let go except his shots, managing to unbreak twice to come back to 5-5. At 6-5 against her, she nevertheless gave in once too many times on her service game to lose in 2:21.
While their tiebreak was the longest ever played by two players in the Billie Jean King Cup, a doubles match lasted even longer, according to the International Tennis Federation.
PHOTO JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA, USA TODAY SPORTS
Dayana Yastremska
It was 2004, when the competition was still called the Fed Cup, and Indians Manisha Malhotra/Sania Mirza won a 21/19 tiebreaker over Uzbeks Vlada Ekshibarova/Ivanna Israilova in a match qualification for the Asian zone in Tashkent.
In the second confrontation of the day, the American Jessica Pegula (14and) must face the Ukrainian Katarina Zvatska (201and).
The winning country will join 11 other teams in the final phase of the Billie Jean King Cup, including Switzerland, finalists last year, and Australia, which benefited from the exclusion of defending champion Russia.
The American Tennis Federation has announced that part of the ticketing revenue will be donated to an association helping Ukraine, the target since February 24 of a Russian military invasion.