Spain Survives a Doubles Marathon to End an 18-Year Semifinal Wait

Spain needed Cristina Bucșa twice, and after nearly five hours of tennis she still had enough left to finish the job. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro gave Spain the opening point with a clinical 6-2, 6-2 victory over Sonja Zhiyenbayeva in just 62 minutes, but Yulia Putintseva refused to let Kazakhstan disappear. She recovered after dropping the second set to beat Bucșa 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, recording her 28th Billie Jean King Cup victory and matching Galina Voskoboeva’s Kazakhstan record.

That sent Bucșa straight back out alongside Sara Sorribes Tormo for the deciding doubles, where the score barely captures what followed. The Spanish pair won the first set 6-2, then spent nearly 90 minutes trying to survive the second. Anna Danilina and Zhibek Kulambayeva generated break points to move ahead at 3-0, 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5, but Spain held every one of those games. Kazakhstan finished with an extraordinary 20 break-point opportunities and converted only two; Bucșa and Sorribes Tormo saved the other 18 and converted five of their eight chances. One second-set game alone stretched beyond 17 minutes.