France overcome Norway to reach United Cup semi-finals
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France's Caroline Garcia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin celebrating after defeating Norway's Casper Ruud and Ulrikke Eikeri to reach the semi-finals of the United Cup.
PHOTO: AFP
SYDNEY – Caroline Garcia helped France clinch a spot in the United Cup semi-finals, as she beat Malene Helgo in the singles and partnered Edouard Roger-Vasselin to win the doubles decider in a 2-1 victory over Norway in Sydney on Jan 4.
Garcia and Roger-Vasselin beat Ulrikke Eikeri and Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-4 in an entertaining mixed doubles encounter. The first set was a tight affair until France broke serve to make it 6-5 before holding to win the opener, and then made the only break for a 2-1 lead in the second set.
“Tomorrow is going to be a day off. We are not that young any more, especially me,” said playing captain Roger-Vasselin, 40.
“Tomorrow will just be a day off, try to rest, enjoy Sydney maybe and then come back strong for Saturday’s semi-final.”
World No. 20 Garcia earlier survived a second-set scare to give France the lead with a 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5) victory over Helgo.
She looked on course for a straightforward win after cruising through the first set and getting to match point in the second set’s tiebreak, but world No. 544 Helgo rallied to make things difficult for the Frenchwoman.
“It was a crazy match. Malene was a player I didn’t know but she just hit the ball so well,” Garcia said. “I went through all the emotions and I had to find a way through. It was almost too much, but in the end I got the point.”
Ruud, who won his last two singles matches, brought Norway back into the tie with his 6-1, 6-4 win over Adrian Mannarino.
World No. 22 Mannarino had simply no answer to Ruud’s clinical game and the Frenchman avoided a “bagel” only by holding his last service game of the first set, before improving in the second.
France will face top-seeded Poland in the semi-finals in Sydney on Jan 6. In the other last four clash, Australia will meet either Greece or Germany.
Separately, at the Hong Kong Open, Andrey Rublev survived a huge scare in his first singles match of 2024 as the world No. 5 was forced to dig deep to battle past British qualifier Liam Broady 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) in the second round.
The Russian top seed appeared to be cruising when racing into a 3-0 first-set lead.
Broady broke back but Rublev, having managed to secure the set, dropped his serve again at the start of the second as the 108th-ranked Broady, who turned 30 on the day, looked set to celebrate his birthday in style.
The fiery Rublev’s frustration began to grow and, after one of a succession of unforced errors, he angrily kicked out at the advertising boards behind the baseline.
It got the 26-year-old’s adrenaline pumping and he clawed back the break when Broady failed to serve out for the set at 5-4.
Broady then forced Rublev to save three set points in a nerve-shredding tiebreak.
“It was really tough,” said Rublev, who finally won on his first match point after 1hr 50min. “He played really well. For me, it was the first match (of 2024) so it’s always tough.”
Rublev will face rising French world No. 36 Arthur Fils in the last eight on Jan 5. The 19-year-old beat Swiss world No. 194 Marc-Andrea Husler 7-5, 7-5. REUTERS
