In recent years, women's tennis has rarely delighted fans of this sport in Russia, but this week the girls managed to achieve an impressive achievement and again draw attention to themselves. The national team of the country reached the final of the Billie Jean King Cup, formerly known as the Federation Cup and is the World Team Championship. For the first time in six years, Russian tennis players will have the opportunity to compete for victory in this tournament.

The female counterpart of the Davis Cup has undergone significant changes in 2020. Firstly, the format has completely changed - now all the main stages of the tournament also take place within one week instead of being extended over a whole year. It was also decided that 12 teams will take part in the final. Most of them were identified even before the pandemic based on qualifications. The Russian national team, which beat the Romanian team in February 2020, was also among the participants in the updated tournament.

Secondly, the name of the competition has changed. The Federation Cup was renamed in honor of the outstanding American tennis player Billie Jean King, known not only for her achievements in sports, but also for her active social activities. The new name was given to the competition in September 2020, when it was already known that the final round had been postponed to the next season. And only now, when the WTA-tour draw is coming to an end, girls from 12 teams gathered in Prague at the O2 Arena, which has already hosted four finals of this tournament.

The Russian national team has not achieved success in competitions of this format for a long time, and in recent years it was not even included in the world group, but this time it could be attributed to the main favorites along with the hostesses of the courts.

Team captain Igor Andreev managed to collect five players from the top 40 of the WTA singles ranking at once - no other country managed to call at least three such tennis players under their banner.

The team included Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Lyudmila Samsonova.

The final round of the Billie Jean King Cup was divided into two parts - the group stage and the playoffs, starting with the semi-finals.

To become one of the four best national teams, Russian tennis players first had to beat teams from Canada and France.

Fights with the Canadians were supposed to become a formality, since they did not include a single player from the top hundred in the rating, and the only athlete with the name was Gabriela Dobrovski, who is in the top 5 doubles players.

As a result, only Rebecca Marino managed to impose a fight, who won one set against Pavlyuchenkova.

Kasatkin and the duet of Kudermetova and Samsonova added another point to the common piggy bank.

Emphatic performance from @DKasatkina 👏



It's advantage RTF as they take an early lead in the tie # BJKCupFinalspic.twitter.com / E7vWOwIJWq

- Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) November 2, 2021

Due to the fact that in the first match of the group the Canadian defeated the French women (2: 1), the Russians only had to win one meeting against the French team to get into the playoffs.

But this turned out to be not an easy task.

In the first game, Alexandrova and the 77th racket of the world, Clara Burel, met.

The Russian woman won the first set and was two games away from the final victory, but could not put the squeeze on her opponent.

Burel, 20, gave her team a chance to save themselves.

Not everything went well for Pavlyuchenkova in a duel with Alize Korne.

The finalist of the last Roland Garros lost in the first set, but was able to recoup and win her fifth consecutive match in the Billie Jean King Cup, taking into account the past years.

In the pair meeting, which was no longer decisive, Kudermetova and Samsonova had a high-quality warm-up, giving only three games to Burel and Cornet.

Brilliant from start to finish 💥 @ NastiaPav wins an epic contest to guarantee RTF top spot in Group A! # BJKCupFinalspic.twitter.com / RZYtKJf9vQ

- Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) November 3, 2021

On Friday, November 5, the Russian national team met with the US team in a dispute over reaching the final.

The heroine of this match was Samsonova.

At first, Andreev unexpectedly released her for a singles game against the former third racket of the world Sloane Stevens, and at first this choice was only disappointing.

In the first set, Samsonova gave up her serve three times and surrendered in 26 minutes - 1: 6.

But the 22-year-old Russian woman did not give up and sharply added in the second game.

The rivals exchanged games for a long time, until Samsonova realized the break, making the score 5: 4, and won four more points in a row.

In the third set, she already celebrated the victory in the entire match.

Was this the moment the match turned in @ LiudaSamsonova's favor?

🧐



RTF are one win from the final ... # BJKCupFinalspic.twitter.com/4e9zkChBUm

- Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) November 5, 2021

Then the first numbers of their national teams - Pavlyuchenkova and Daniel Collins - entered the court.

The duel between them turned out to be extremely stubborn: the fate of the first two sets was decided in tie-breaks, one of which was won by a Russian woman with a score of 11: 9, and the other was won by an American, who gave only two points.

Pavlyuchenkova had to play the third three-set match in four days, and it was not easy for her.

The Russian woman gave her serve twice and did not compensate for it.

In the decisive match, Russia was again represented by the duet of Kudermetova and Samsonova, and they were opposed by Shelby Rogers and Coco Vandevey.

For the first time in this tournament, the American women formed a pair and did not have time to play.

The Russians, on the other hand, played break points and carried through their attempts to take someone else's serve.

In the end, they won both sets with the same score 6: 3 and led the team to the first in six years, the final of the Billie Jean King Cup.

The rivals in the fight for the title will be the tennis players of the Swiss national team, who confidently beat Australia in their Friday match.

Kudermetova is on fire 🔥



The first set goes the way of RTF in this deciding doubles match-up! # BJKCupFinalspic.twitter.com / PSiWkA0AUz

- Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) November 5, 2021