Rally of Romania: Comeback stuns Ukraine at Billie Jean King Cup tennis on Amelia Island

FERNANDINA BEACH With two games behind to nil and a clean sheet needed to extend Romania's win in the Billie Jean King Cup from Gainbridge, Ana Bogdan did not lose heart.

All it needed was a little Instagram inspiration.

“I was looking at the pictures on Instagram, basically of all the people who had already qualified,” she said. “I was like, we'll be there. We'll see our names there in those pictures, and this time Romania will qualify.”

With a bold lineup shake-up, nine hours of grit and an effort to remember from iron women Bogdan and Jaqueline Cristian, Romania roared back from the brink of elimination, denying the home-away-from-home Ukrainian team 3-2 against Billie Jean from Saturday. King Cup Qualifying Round at Racquet Park on Omni Amelia Island.

Bogdan and Cristian, who were just shy of winning their reverse singles matches earlier in the afternoon, just a 30-minute break before Cristian from her 2 hour 18 minute match, stunned Ukrainian doubles specialists Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok with 6-2, 7- 6 (9-7) under the early evening sky of Fernandina Beach.

“Both [singles] Matches in a regular tournament would be big setbacks,” Romanian captain Horia Tecau said. “I'm very proud of the way they fought today.”

For Northeast Florida, the qualifier, organized by the Svitolina Foundation, which promotes tennis programs in Ukraine, marked a long-awaited return for top-level tennis after an absence of more than a decade. After 29 years of the Bausch & Lomb Invitational on Amelia Island from 1980 to 2008, and two years of WTA Tour competition at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, tennis had bypassed the First Coast.

Romania's rally dashed the championship hopes of Ukraine, which had moved its home leg to Florida because of the Russian invasion, but brought cheers and another round of “Ro-ma-ni-a!” chants from dozens of Romanian supporters.

Cup organizers said the 0-2 comeback was only the ninth since the tournament adopted a best-of-5 format in 1995, and was Romania's first-ever rally after a two-match hole.

Their reward: a ticket to the final stage, the Tennis World Cup in Spain in the fall, the first time they have reached that court since the premier international team tournament for women's tennis adopted its current format in 2020. there in addition to the United States, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Poland and Slovakia, as well as automatic qualifiers Canada, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic.

'WORST DAY': HEARTBREAKER FOR UKRAINE

As the sun rose over Amelia Island on Saturday, Ukraine looked close to turning its temporary home in Florida into a winner. After Elina Svitolina and Lesia Tsurenko won their opening singles matches on Friday, Ukraine only needed to win one of Saturday's three matches.

“For us this is the worst day,” said Ukrainian captain Mikhail Filima. “I can't remember three games in a row where there were many chances where we couldn't win.”

But Svitolina ran into a tough opponent in Bogdan, who had lost her last seven matches on Friday but emerged as a brand new player, beating the Ukrainian top-ranked 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the space of two hours, 51. -minute epic.

The third set alone lasted 76 minutes, with nine deuces in the second game and seven in the eighth. Bogdan fell behind 2-0 in the set and trailed 40-15 in the third game, but fought back to break Svitolina's serve and never looked back.

“We had a lot of chances,” Filima said.

UNLIKELY DOUBLE DUO LIFTS ROMANIA

It was just moments after Cristian stormed back from behind to beat Ukraine's Tsurenko 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, when she learned her weekend was not over.

Romanian captain Tecau pulled the trigger after a bold decision, replacing the hot hands of Bogdan and Cristian in place of the planned double duo of Anca Todoni and Mara Gae.

“They were high and confident, and they saw the ball big,” Tecau said.

Never mind that Bogdan said she had only doubled with Cristian four or five times before, not since 2023 and never in the Billie Jean King Cup. It doesn't matter that the Ukrainian Kichenok twins have been feared in doubles for years, with Lyudmyla winning the mixed doubles at Wimbledon last summer. And it doesn't matter that both Romanians had just played grueling, high-stakes singles matches.

“I thought, I'm ready, and I'm going to go for it with full energy,” Bogdan said. “It doesn't matter if I'm tired or not. I know if I have it in my head, I know the body will keep up.”

“I kept going with the confidence I had in singles, and I think it was a big boost to win the match,” Cristian said.

The Romanian connection this time: instant.

“For me, the challenge was to be active on the net because it's not something I do every week during the tournaments,” Bogdan said. “So I said, you can do it, you can make it, just be there and concentrate.”

They took advantage of miscues to take the first set, only to have a second set back and forth with some controversy. Ukraine lost a potential break point opportunity after a controversial touch call with the score 4-3 and a pair of great breakaways. Bogdan fought two Ukrainian set points to force a tiebreak.

In that tiebreak, Romania recovered from a 4-1 hole, and although Ukraine fended off two match points, Bogdan crushed a return to spark the celebrations.

History, made on Amelia Island.

“It's time to enjoy the moment too, because the last 24 hours have not been easy,” Cristian said. “So now we just want to enjoy it and take it in.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Billie Jean King Cup: Romania 2-0 rally vs. Ukraine on Amelia Island