Sanchez-Vicario puts Spain on top in Fed Cup
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario extended her record of Fed Cup wins to 72 to help Spain take a 2-0 lead over Austria in their best-of-five-match semi-final in Gran Canaria.
Slovakia recovered from a shock defeat for Daniela Hantuchova to pull level at 1-1 in their semi-final with Italy.
Sanchez-Vicario followed up Conchita Martinez's 6-0, 7-5 win over Patricia Wartusch with a hard-fought victory over Barbara Schett to boost Spain's hopes of a sixth Fed Cup title.
"I am not thinking about victory yet," Sanchez-Vicario said after producing a typically gutsy display to beat Schett 6-3, 7-6 in one hour and 35 minutes and extend her tally of singles wins in the competition to 50.
"We still have tomorrow, and then the final, but to win (the Fed Cup) again would be amazing. I always seem to play my best tennis in it, even against the best players."
Sanchez-Vicario and Martinez have played in all five of Spain's cup-winning teams since they first won the title in 1991.
"To play Fed Cup means a lot to me. When you win it for the first time, you always remember it," Sanchez-Vicario said. "It's like your dreams have come true, and you wonder if you'll be able to win it again.
"We were very young then (in 1991). Now, we have won it five times. I think we are better players and we have much more experience, but it's still great to win."
Schett showed admirable courage to save five match points before finally going down to Sanchez-Vicario, squandering a 5-2 lead in the second-set tie-break as the Spaniard won it 7-5.
"I thought I was the aggressive one out there, but she just kept running and basically got the ball back," a frustrated Schett said.
"Maybe I should have been more disciplined, but I think if I'd won the second set it would have been very different. I had my chances."
Martinez had earlier given Spain the perfect start as she beat Wartusch in two sets for her 43rd Fed Cup singles win.
After losing the first set 6-0, Wartusch, ranked 82nd and playing singles only because of an injury to Barbara Schwartz, recovered from 5-2 down to get back on level terms at 5-5, but the Spaniard held serve and then broke Wartusch for the third time in the set to clinch victory.
ITALY'S FLYING START
The first surprise of the day came in the opening singles of the second semi-final, when Francesca Schiavone upset Hantuchova in two sets with a dominant performance.
After both players traded early breaks, the set always looked like reaching a tie-break, and it was the Italian who was the stronger, her greater consistency proving the difference as she took it 7-1, running down everything Hantuchova could throw at her.
Schiavone then raced through the second set to clinch it 6-1.
"I think the end of the first set was very important," Hantuchova said. "After that tie-break, I didn't really feel in the match.
"Of course, the surface suited her more than me because it is quite slow, but I still think we have chances of winning tomorrow."
Those chances were greatly improved as Janette Husarova gave the Slovakia team a huge boost with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Italy's top-ranked player, Silvia Farina Elia, to pull the tie level going into Thursday's reverse singles and doubles.
