PARIS — The Netherlands opened-up a shock 2-0 lead over Russia in the Fed Cup Saturday on the back of a four-hour win for Richel Hogenkamp against Svetlana Kuznetsova in the tournament's longest ever singles rubber.
Hogenkamp, the world No. 141, survived a match point to win 7-6 (7/4), 5-7, 10-8 in Moscow against world No. 17 Kuznetsova, a former two-time Grand Slam champion.
At four hours, the match was the longest singles rubber in Fed Cup history, beating the previous best set in 2005, when Vilmarie Castellvi of Puerto Rico beat Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in three hours and 49 minutes.
Kiki Bertens, ranked 106, earlier put her country 1-0 up beating 31st-ranked Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-4.
"I'm very happy that I'm the one who could make it 2-0 today," said Hogenkamp.
"And of course it feels great to win the longest match in Fed Cup history.
"I was trying to play my own game and it worked well. It's a good score after the first day but in Fed Cup you still need to win three rubbers so we're not there yet."
Four-time champion Russia now faces a dilemma over whether or not to name Maria Sharapova in Sunday's reverse singles despite the world No. 6 insisting a forearm injury would restrict her to the doubles clash which will conclude the tie.
Defending champion the Czech Republic was also in a dogfight in Cluj where it ended the day at 1-1 against Romania.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the world No. 9, hit 46 unforced errors in her 6-3, 6-4 loss to Monica Niculescu, the 37th-ranked player.
Earlier, Karolina Pliskova, one of the stars of the Czechs' 2015 final win against Russia, stunned world No. 3 Simona Halep 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2.
It was 23-year-old Pliskova's first win over Halep in four meetings.
Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Angelique Kerber got Germany's first round match against Switzerland back on track in Leipzig with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Timea Bacsinszky.
The Swiss had taken the lead in the tie when 18-year-old Belinda Bencic, the world number 11, swept past Andrea Petkovic, 6-3, 6-4.
In Marseille, France and Italy were locked at 1-1.
Camila Giorgi defeated Kristina Mladenovic 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 before Caroline Garcia leveled the tie by seeing of former French Open runner-up Sara Errani 6-3, 7-5.
Bautista-Agut reaches semis
Top-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut advanced to the semifinals of the Sofia Open by beating eighth-seeded Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-3 Friday.
Bautista Agut won 77 percent of his service points and converted two of his five break points.
“It is never easy to start a tournament in the quarterfinals, especially when your opponent has played two matches,” said Bautista Agut, who had a bye in the first round and advanced with a walkover in the second.
The Spaniard will next face sixth-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.
Mueller had 14 aces as he rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the first set to beat third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (6), 6-4.
In another match, second seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia defeated Philipp Kohlscheiber of Germany 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals.
In the last match of the day, seventh-seeded Slovak player Martin Klizan overcame fourth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-3, 6-4 securing a berth in the semis.
Zverev in last four
Teenager Alexander Zverev beat Michael Berrer 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-5 in an all-German match to reach the Open Sud de France semifinals Friday.
The 18-year-old Zverev saved 16 of 18 break-points faced, including 10 in the third set, and won on his fifth match point.
“It wasn’t easy to use all the chances because of (his) great play,” said Zverev, who beat 2014 US Open Marin Cilic in the second round. “You can have an unbelievable day like I did against Marin. You don’t have those days all the time, but I got the win.”
He next plays Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who had 17 aces in a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 quarterfinal win against John Millman of Australia. — Agencies
