OK, so World Group II play-off teams are:-
Russia - missing many players in their 4-1 loss to Slovakia
Ukraine - no Svitolina in their 3-2 loss to Australia
Canada - beaten 3-1 by Halep-less Romania, and the 1 was the dead rubber doubles
Spain - slightly surprisingly beaten 3-2 away to Italy, with the match over after rubber 4 as Italy lead 3-1 at that stage
Britain - cruised through Euro-Africa Group I without losing a rubber, dropping just two sets
Latvia - had to work a little harder than Britain despite a very strong team in Tallinn (Ostapenko and Sevastova); Ostapenko lost a pool match and then Sevastova lost the opening rubber of the play-off against Serbia before Ostapenko and then Ostapenko & Sevastova sorted things
Japan - cruised through pool without losing a string, but play-off against Kazakhstan went to deciding doubles before being settled
Paraguay - key pool win over Colombia, and then 2-0 victory over Brazil (who had beaten Argentina) in play-off. No.2 singles player Montserrat Gonzalez had a very good week, going 3-0 in singles and 5-0 overall.
Rankings still to be figured out, but based on the ones before this round of matches that would give the following
Seeds
Russia
Ukraine
Spain
Canada
Non-seeds
Britain
Paraguay
Japan
Latvia
Oh, and whilst on the subject the World Group I QF results were:
Belarus 2-3 Germany - bit of a shock, as Belarus had marginally the higher ranked singles players. Decided in the doubles, which was won in three sets by Groenefeld & Maria.
Czech Rep 3-1 Switzerland - straightforward, as one would expect with a team consisting of Ka.Pliskova, Kvitova, Strycova and Safarova. Was 3-0 after three singles rubbers, Golubic taking a set from Kvitova on Day 1. 10th straight Semi-Final for the Czechs.
France 3-2 Belgium - Hesse & Mladenovic won a deciding doubles in three sets. Kiki Mladenovic was the only star to show for the match and she carried the French team, winning both singles rubbers (vs. Flipkens and Mertens) and that doubles. A shame for a strong Belgian team (van Uytvanck also played singles).
USA 3-1 Netherlands - The Dutch got hit by a ten-ton truck in terms of team selection. For them, no Kiki Bertens. For the USA Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe, Lauren Davis and Serena Williams! Venus and CoCo played and won the singles, despite articles on tennis.com bemoaning not letting Serena off the leash. When they finally did for the dead rubber doubles alongside big sis (probably a pre-planned move despite the announced nominations being Serena and Davis), well, um, the Dutch won 2&3. Hence articles entitled 'Serena makes return to competitive Tennis' rather than 'Serena makes winning return to competitive Tennis'. As per the BBC article this was never about the scoreline. Yeah, right. As if you would have written that if the result had been the other way.
SFs are Germany vs Czech Rep and France vs USA.
Russia - missing many players in their 4-1 loss to Slovakia
Ukraine - no Svitolina in their 3-2 loss to Australia
Canada - beaten 3-1 by Halep-less Romania, and the 1 was the dead rubber doubles
Spain - slightly surprisingly beaten 3-2 away to Italy, with the match over after rubber 4 as Italy lead 3-1 at that stage
Britain - cruised through Euro-Africa Group I without losing a rubber, dropping just two sets
Latvia - had to work a little harder than Britain despite a very strong team in Tallinn (Ostapenko and Sevastova); Ostapenko lost a pool match and then Sevastova lost the opening rubber of the play-off against Serbia before Ostapenko and then Ostapenko & Sevastova sorted things
Japan - cruised through pool without losing a string, but play-off against Kazakhstan went to deciding doubles before being settled
Paraguay - key pool win over Colombia, and then 2-0 victory over Brazil (who had beaten Argentina) in play-off. No.2 singles player Montserrat Gonzalez had a very good week, going 3-0 in singles and 5-0 overall.
Rankings still to be figured out, but based on the ones before this round of matches that would give the following
Seeds
Russia
Ukraine
Spain
Canada
Non-seeds
Britain
Paraguay
Japan
Latvia
Oh, and whilst on the subject the World Group I QF results were:
Belarus 2-3 Germany - bit of a shock, as Belarus had marginally the higher ranked singles players. Decided in the doubles, which was won in three sets by Groenefeld & Maria.
Czech Rep 3-1 Switzerland - straightforward, as one would expect with a team consisting of Ka.Pliskova, Kvitova, Strycova and Safarova. Was 3-0 after three singles rubbers, Golubic taking a set from Kvitova on Day 1. 10th straight Semi-Final for the Czechs.
France 3-2 Belgium - Hesse & Mladenovic won a deciding doubles in three sets. Kiki Mladenovic was the only star to show for the match and she carried the French team, winning both singles rubbers (vs. Flipkens and Mertens) and that doubles. A shame for a strong Belgian team (van Uytvanck also played singles).
USA 3-1 Netherlands - The Dutch got hit by a ten-ton truck in terms of team selection. For them, no Kiki Bertens. For the USA Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe, Lauren Davis and Serena Williams! Venus and CoCo played and won the singles, despite articles on tennis.com bemoaning not letting Serena off the leash. When they finally did for the dead rubber doubles alongside big sis (probably a pre-planned move despite the announced nominations being Serena and Davis), well, um, the Dutch won 2&3. Hence articles entitled 'Serena makes return to competitive Tennis' rather than 'Serena makes winning return to competitive Tennis'. As per the BBC article this was never about the scoreline. Yeah, right. As if you would have written that if the result had been the other way.
SFs are Germany vs Czech Rep and France vs USA.
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