KA‘ANAPALI, Maui >> A weird and wonderful Fed Cup complete with controversy and exceptional tennis finished Sunday with the United States sweeping to its first semifinal in seven years.
The 10th-ranked U.S. captured all three singles matches at Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch this weekend and the “dead doubles” match to beat third-ranked Germany, which had been to three of the past four semifinals.
The wins came in increasingly bizarre forms.
The world’s largest annual international team competition for women — 107 nations are competing in the Fed Cup this year — began on Maui with the wrong national anthem being sung for Germany.
Then Alison Riske won for the first time in the Fed Cup. She persevered in a blustery, rain-delayed match, taking a tense tiebreaker then blowing by Andrea Petkovic, Germany’s first singles player.
CoCo Vandeweghe, last seen taking out three seeded players on her way to the Australian Open semifinals, took over from there.
The Americans’ No. 1 — now ranked a career-high 20th — won the opening set against Julia Goerges on Saturday and was up 3-1 in the second when the day’s fourth rain delay proved to be its worst, in more ways than one.
The sky fell and play was canceled, but not before Goerges slipped on the baseline in the final rally and injured her knee. She wasn’t able to continue on Sunday, when the weather was perfect — and perfectly hot.
That led to more drama.
Goerges’ freak injury proved Fed Cup-fatal for the Germans a few hours later. Vandeweghe cramped up and began to suffer from dehydration in her match with Petkovic, who took the first set 6-3 and was up 4-2 in the second.
Who knows what would have happened had Goerges extended Vandeweghe earlier? Instead, the Americans’ rising star kept getting up off her back while first-time captain Kathy Rinaldi iced her during changeovers and one medical timeout. Vandeweghe won the last 10 games, bageling Petkovic in the third.
When the drama was over, Vandeweghe went to her knees and kissed the Maui ground. She was soon swarmed by teammates and Rinaldi.
“I thought I was going to die for a second,” Vandeweghe told the crowd. “It’s a home tie for a reason and you guys pushed me through and that’s the bottom line.”
Shelby Rogers then made her Fed Cup debut in the inconsequential doubles match with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, the world’s top-ranked doubles player.
Germany’s misfortunes
With the Americans up 4-1 in the first set, the Germans’ fortunes somehow fell further. Laura Siegemund and Carina Witthoeft had to withdraw from their Fed Cup debut when Siegemund’s arm injury flared up. Rogers ended up inviting two little girls to hit with her after she signed autographs.
“I’ve had quite some Fed Cups but we were really unlucky if I see the whole picture,” said German captain Barbara Rittner, who also admitted her team did not take advantage of its opportunities. “It was probably the worst Fed Cup on the most beautiful island.”
On the way out, the Germans told Mattek-Sands their flight home was canceled. “I think they went whale watching, too,” Mattek-Sands added, “and didn’t see a whale.”
In contrast, “Team USA had a blast in Hawaii,” she said, not surprisingly. Vandeweghe’s improbable comeback sealed the deal.
The 25-year-old was uncommonly quiet and calm from the start Sunday, and her erratic game looked more like her much younger days. Rinaldi — called “The Rock” by her players — kept her calm as her legs gave out and she started letting balls go and soft serving early in the second set.
CoCo’s comeback
Somehow, Rinaldi’s nurturing and Vandeweghe’s will won out. She beat Petkovic for the first time in four meetings, despite being down 2-4, 15-40 in the second set.
Vandeweghe pounded two of her six aces, then pulled to 3-4. The American took out her fourth racket and broke Petkovic’s serve on her third opportunity. Vandeweghe won her serve to take the lead and took the set when she broke serve at love.
The German slammed her racket while Vandeweghe was iced down yet again during the changeover. Six games and 26 minutes later it was over.
“She served really well in the decisive moments there,” Petkovic said. “She had four first serves and then I played a bad game at 4-3. I think in tennis it can change so quickly. She was just serving really well in the third set. I never really got any rhythm.”
Home advantage
The match lasted a little over two hours and, somehow, so did Vandeweghe. She called the home-field advantage and playing for her country the decisive factors in her “coming back from the dead,” as Mattek-Sands put it.
“I don’t really need much of a reason more to give everything I have out there on the court,” Vandeweghe said. “It’s no secret I was feeling like crap out there. I definitely needed a big pick-me-up. I definitely feed off the crowd and my teammates.”
Rinaldi, and lots of others, were grateful.
“Everybody had a role this week,” Rinaldi said. “Everybody did a super job. Obviously, to see the emotion from CoCo after just leaving it literally all on the court, I couldn’t be more proud.”
Petkovic, eloquent in defeat both days, fell to 12-8 in Fed Cup singles. She called this weekend “one of the weirdest Fed Cups I’ve ever played.”
“I thought I saw it all,” she shrugged. “Apparently I didn’t. It’s always nice to experience new things I guess.”
The semifinal against defending champion and top-ranked Czech Republic will be hosted by the U.S. in April. Attendance both days on Maui was just under the 2,400 capacity (4,629 total) at Royal Lahaina. With a much larger venue and infra-structure needed for semis, USTA Hawaii Pacific Section executive director Ron Romano said Hawaii will probably not be able to make a bid.
