PARIS: Madison Keys predicted “a crazy” Fed Cup final against the Czech Republic after seeing off Pauline Parmentier to fire the United States past France in Sunday’s semi-final.

Keys, 13th in the world, defeated the 122nd-ranked Parmentier 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to earn the defending champions a 3-1 win in Aix-en-Provence.

Waiting for the US in the November final are the Czechs, who swept past Germany 4-1 in the other semi-final in Stuttgart.

The US match winner Keys, who battled back after trailing Parmentier 4-1 in the first set, said: “It feels amazing, but not for me — but to do that for this team and help us back to the final.

“I knew [Pauline] would play well, she was so good against Sloane [Stephens] yesterday.

“I love playing in atmospheres like this, even if they are not all cheering for you it still makes for a great game. It is going to be a crazy final.”

US Open champion Stephens had put the US on the verge of the final after brushing aside Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-0 in Sunday’s first rubber.

“She [Stephens] had an answer for everything,” shrugged the world number 20.

It was Mladenovic who had given France a fighting chance when ending Coco Vandeweghe’s 13-match Fed Cup win streak to pull France level at 1-1 on Saturday.

But she was unable to repeat those heroics against Stephens who had given the Americans their first point when defeating Parmentier 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 in Saturday’s opening match.

France were always going to face an uphill task, missing a posse of established stars like world number seven Caroline Garcia in captain Yannick Noah’s Fed Cup swansong.

Earlier, Petra Kvitova put the Czech Republic into a sixth Fed Cup final in eight years following her 6-2, 6-2 win against Angelique Kerber.

After the Czechs had surged 2-0 up on Saturday, Julia Goerges had given hosts Germany a brief lifeline by beating Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-2 before Kvitova’s decisive win.

“I am very relieved. I was getting nervous before this game,” admitted Kvitova after the 30th win of her Fed Cup career.

“We had a great position from yesterday, I think Julia played a really good match. I knew we still needed one point from our last two games and I just did my best.”

In Sunday’s concluding dead doubles, Barbora Strycova and Katerina Siniakova took the first set 7-5 before being awarded the match when Goerges, playing alongside Anna-Lena Groenefeld, retired hurt.

It was a bitter end to the day for Goerges. She had pulled the Germans back into the tie with a determined win over Pliskova only for Kerber to fail to maintain the momentum against Kvitova.

“It will take a while to get over it,” admitted Kerber. “We all know that was a great opportunity for us,” she added, as the Germans missed out on a first appearance in the Fed Cup final since 2014.

The Czechs, who have home advantage over the Americans in the November 10-11 final, had won the title three times in a row until the US dethroned them last year.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2018