Swiss Billie Jean King Cup team member Jil Teichmann has labelled Russia’s team “cheats” after Russia beat Switzerland 2-0 in the final in Prague.
Teichmann was beaten in the opening match in straight sets by Daria Kasatkina and Belinda Bencic was ready to meet Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second match before the Russian pulled out 15 minutes before the start.
Pavlyuchenkova was replaced by Liudmila Samsonova, who beat Bencic to give Russia the title.
Teichmann posted on Twitter she was upset with the way the Russians played the final., saying: “Is it a compliment if you’re opponent has to cheat to beat you? 10 min before walk on…”
As the war of words heated up, Veronika Kudermetova insisted Pavlyuchenkova wanted to play but at the last moment realised she couldn’t.
“It happened at the last moment,” Kudermetova said.
“Because Nastia she felt good, she had a good three matches, a very good quality and she wanted to play today because she is the first player in our team, and she tried to warm up and she started to feel the knee and it’s worse, she couldn’t serve, she couldn’t jump.”
Pavlyuchenkova defended the decision to switch players at such a late stage.
“I already felt yesterday evening, but I wanted to try my best, and I tried this morning during warmup and I still believed that I could do it, but I just couldn’t even serve, so that was the decision,” she said.
“I think in sports, especially I’ve been there for a while, I think you have to learn and also accept to lose, and respect.”
