Japanese No. 1 Moyuka Uchijima beat Romania¡¯s Anca Todoni to dash Romania¡¯s hopes of reaching the finals after Ena Shibahara had got Japan off to a flying start in their Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers Group A clash on Saturday.
Shibahara beat Miriam Bulgaru 7-5, 6-2 and Uchijima overcame Todoni 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in 2? hours in Tokyo to set up a winner-takes-all showdown with Canada on Sunday.
Todoni earned the first break to move ahead 4-2 in the opening set and maintained her advantage to close it out 6-3.
The Romanian also led for much of the second set before Uchijima saved two match points and broke back to force a tiebreak.
Uchijima dominated that and broke Todoni twice in the third set to seal victory.
¡°I don¡¯t know how I won the match. I am just happy that I was able to pull it off. Of course, the fans helped me a lot,¡± Uchijima said.
Shibahara had put Japan ahead to the delight of a vocal home crowd, pouncing at 6-5 to claim the first set and breaking Bulgaru twice in the second.
¡°I was nervous in the beginning. I think overall I played well,¡± Shibahara said. ¡°It (the crowd) helps me so much, I love it when they¡¯re loud. I really kept pressing and being aggressive.¡±
Australia completed a 3-0 sweep of Colombia in Brisbane, but it was not enough to reach the Finals in Shenzhen as Kazakhstan had already secured top spot in Group D.
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