The Americans hold a commanding 2-0 lead over Poland after day one of their Fed Cup tie in Hawaii. Team USA now has three chances to lock up the tie on Sunday with two reverse singles rubbers scheduled as well as doubles if necessary.
Stephens Sets Tone
It didn't take Sloane Stephens long to find her way into the lead against Poland's Magda Linette. After exchanging service holds, the American punched her way in front with a break of serve in game three. Stephens would survive a shaky service game after that, fending off a break chance to consolidate for a 3-1 lead. Stephens would lead nothing to chance late in the set as she broke Linette again to cruise to a 6-2 first set win. She continuously punished Linette's weak serve to set herself up in good positions. She was ruthless on break chances, cashing in two of three in the opener that took just half an hour.
Second Set Sees Sloane Rally
With everything looked good for Stephens after the first, questions began to be raised after two games. Linette won a tremendous 20 shot rally to score a break of serve and hold a 2-0 lead on the 22-year-old American. A quick hold and another break handed the Polish player a seemingly insurmountable 4-0 lead. To Stephens credit, she steadied her nerves and regained her composure to break back in the 5th game to 4-1. She would fight to hold her serve for the first time in the set and suddenly was within 4-2.
The pressure seemed to mount on Linette as Stephens began to play more cleanly, while Linette was flowing with unforced errors. Stephens would climb all the way back even at 4-4 and then break for her 5th straight game as she did a fine job of moving in to pressure Linette's serve. Stephens would close out the match with a big serve out wide that could not be returned. It was a tremendous rally from Stephens when it looked like the match was destined for three sets as she won six straight games to come back from down 0-4.
Venus Battles to Win
The momentum from Sloane Stephens' comeback did not help Venus Williams to start the second singles rubber. The 35-year-old would be broken in her first service game, but immediately find her way back in against Paula Kania to draw to a 3-1 lead when she broke Kania a second time. At 3-1, both players would make a mess of their service games for over the next three games with successive breaks that left Venus leading 4-3, but with Kania to serve. The veteran American was really having issues with her first serve as she tried everything to correct the problem, including lessening her service speed.
Kania would hold serve to even the match at 4-4 and then surge ahead with a third straight break of Williams' serve. The player from Poland would see her serve fail her though as she tried to surprisingly take the opening set. It was 5-5 as Venus finally found some rhythm on serve to hold. She would score the 9th service break of the opening set to take it 7-5. The sun seemingly hindered both players when serving from one end as it glared down hard on them.
Second Set Sends Americans to Commanding Lead
Both players won 50 percent or less of their service points in the opening set with Kania really struggling as she won just nine of 24. The second set started with the 10th break of serve in the match as Venus Williams was on the wrong end with Kania again with a lead. The Polish player's serve would let her down again though as Venus broke back to 1-1. After a rare service hold for the American, she would pounce once more on Kania's service game to take a 3-1 lead. That would start another string of successive breaks, this one seeing three in a row, that would leave Venus in the lead 4-2. Williams would find a way to close out a fairly ugly win 7-5, 6-2.
Kania managed to win fewer points on serve in the final set with just eight out of 22, while Venus won 15 of 22 for a big improvement over the first set. For the match, Kania had a whopping 30 unforced errors with the American tallying 20. Despite some rough patches, Venus said afterward that it still felt good to win with the crowd helping her out, "It's never easy to play Fed Cup because you're playing for more than yourself. I just get pumped it's good to be here. The whole crowd is here for you and there's no other feeling like it in tennis."
Sunday's Schedule
Team USA finds itself in prime position to get this tie completed early. They need just one more win to seal the deal. First up on Sunday will be the reverse singles rubber that sees Venus Williams take on Magda Linette. The two have never met. If necessary, the other reverse singles rubber would feature Sloane Stephens - Paula Kania. The fifth and final rubber for doubles seems unlikely to be needed, but would pit Coco Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands against Polish captain Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Alicja Rosolska.