{"id":155334,"date":"2021-11-04T20:05:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T21:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=155334"},"modified":"2021-11-05T03:59:16","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T03:59:16","slug":"nervous-aussies-rally-to-advance-to-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=155334","title":{"rendered":"'Nervous' Aussies rally to advance to semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia<\/a> earned a spot in the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup on Thursday by winning both singles matches against Belarus.\n<\/p>\n

The Aussies, who reached the final of the last edition of the competition formerly known as the Fed Cup, needed to win the best-of-three series to advance from Group B.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former Wallaby Morgan Turinui shares epic Melbourne Cup story from 2003<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> NFL superstar MVP caught up in COVID scandal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Shane Warne takes aim at 'poor' Tim Paine<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\nThe Czech Republic and Switzerland will meet later Thursday in Group D with the winner setting up a match against Australia in the next round.\n<\/p>\n

Ajla Tomljanovic<\/a> rallied to defeat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to give Australia an unbeatable 2-0 lead. Storm Sanders beat Yuliya Hatouka 6-3, 6-3 in the opening singles match.\n<\/p>\n

"I was happy I could come out today and the fact that I got the point makes me unbelievably happy," Tomljanovic said.\n<\/p>\n

For the 131st-ranked Sanders, it was her second win at the tournament. She also beat Belgium's top player, 18th-ranked Elise Mertens, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-0 in her debut for Australia.\n<\/p>\n

\"Australia's<\/p>\n

"Today, I definitely felt there was more pressure," said Sanders, who didn't face a break point. "For me, even if I was a little bit nervous, it was great to have the teammates on the side and they definitely helped with their support."\n<\/p>\n

The 12 teams in the finals were divided into four groups of three in a new competition format. Only the group winners advance to Friday's semi-finals.\n<\/p>\n

Last year's edition was cancel[led because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia earned a spot in the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup on Thursday by winning both singles matches against Belarus. The Aussies, who […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=155334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155336,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155334\/revisions\/155336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=155334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=155334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=155334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}