Fed Cup: Austria's women defeat Greece
Great success for Austria at the Fed Cup : Melanie Klaffner and Sinja Kraus were able to prevail against the Greeks Valentini Grammatikopoulou and Despina Papamichail in the doubles decision and sealed the 2-1 victory of the Austrians.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Feb 06, 2020, 09:32 pm
After the clear 0-3 defeat in the first group game the strong women from Italy , a win was already mandatory for the Austrians in the second game. The start of the duel with Greece was anything but made-to-measure: Sinja Kraus had to admit defeat in two sets in the first encounter of the day Valentini Grammatikopoulou. And Julia Grabher also quickly lost passage one against Despina Papamichail with 1: 6. But the Vorarlberg struggled into this game and was able to win sets two and three with 6: 4 and 7: 5 and equalize in this international match.
Strong nerves in the decision-making double
It therefore took a double decision to determine the winner of this encounter. Here Valentini Grammatikopoulou and Despina Papamichail faced each other on the Greek side and Melanie Klaffner and Sinja Kraus on the Austrian side. The two Austrians won the positive energy from the terrific comeback Grabhers in the back, set one with 7: 5 and round two with 7: 6 (2). Even though they had a set ball against them at 5: 6 in set two.
In the last group game, the Austrians meet the hosts from Estonia. The Estonians have lost their first group game against Greece. With a win, the women from Austria could still achieve second place in Pool B of Group I of the Fed Cup. The runner-up has the chance to play for a place in the play-off against the winner from pool A.