Perth, Australia - Spain claimed a morale boost on Thursday,
closing out its run at the Hopman Cup with a 2-1 victory over the
Czech Republic.
The final match for the pair of nations was played for pride only. Despise winning two of three ties, Spain were pipped for a place in
the Saturday final as the US won both of its ties by 3-0 shorelines.
The Americans will face last year's winner Australia later. The
second finals place will be decided Friday night when Roger Federer's Switzerland play France, with the winner going through to the
title match.
Spain fell into an early deficit as Czech Lucie Hradreka defeated
Lara Arruabarrena 6-2, 6-4. Hradreka won her second singles rubber from three played this week as
she fired 10 aces and broke four times against her Iberian opponent.
The Czech attributes her low 166th world ranking to the fact that she let
her singles slip in 2016 while concentrating on Olympic doubles last
season. She and Lucie Hlavakova played the bronze medal match,
"I'm so happy, I played very solid today," Hradreka said.
Feliciano Lopez levelled 1-1 for Spain defeating Adam Pavlasek 7-6
(7-5), 6-4. The Spaniards needed four match points to earn victory
through the hybrid FAST4 doubles, taking it 4-2, 4-1.
"It feels good to win my first singles match of the season," Lopez
said. I played quite well. It was 10 or 15 degrees cooler today (from
43 Celsius on Wednesday), so conditions were different."