The defending champion is dethroned: The Czech ladies make use of the most important competitions of the national teams and the USA in Prague, the home-field advantage. Both Teams will compete only with B-Teams.
Czech Tennis-ladies won for the ninth Time the Fed Cup. The hosts prevailed in the final in Prague in advance against the defending champion United States. Already after the third single on Sunday, the Czech Republic resulted in a win the title with 3:0. The decisive third point Katerina Siniakova repeated with a 7:5, 5:7, 7:5-success against Sofia Kenin.
Siniakova had won on Saturday, also her first singles against Alison Riske, as a prelude to Barbora Strycova against Kenin was successful. For the Czech Republic, it was the sixth Triumph in the past eight years.
Both Teams competed in the traditional team competition only with a B-team. The 17-times winner, US, the Williams had to be cancelled-sisters Serena and Venus as early as French-Open-finalist Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys. In the case of the Czechs, the world lacked ranking seventh Petra Kvitova, the number eight, Karolina Pliskova.
The German Fed-Cup-women were failed in April in Stuttgart in the semi-finals to the Czech Republic.
sw/asz (dpa, sid)