It was worth the wait this weekend for 2011-12 Fed Cup champions Czech Republic.  Even without their best player in Petra Kvitova, the Czechs outlasted adverse weather and a plucky Spanish team in Seville.

A tie scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday had completed just one rubber by the end of the weekend, in which Carla Suarez Navarro had cruised past Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.  Torrential downpours on the outdoor clay forced the teams to complete the second rubber and play the rest on Monday, when the sun finally returned.  And it was fortunate that it did, for this tie was the only Fed Cup quarterfinal to remain in doubt until the fifth and final rubber.

All of the four remaining matches featured plenty of suspense and momentum twists.  Klara Zakopalova had led Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor by a set and a break in the second rubber before the deluge on Sunday postponed their match overnight.  When they returned to the court, Torro-Flor reeled off six straight games to force a final set that the Czechs absolutely needed to win.  Zakopalova regrouped to dominate that set and even the tie at 1-1. 

Then came the matches initially scheduled for Sunday, pitting the two No. 1s against the two No. 2s.  Perhaps still elated from her triumph over Torro-Flor, Zakopalova raced out to an early lead against Suarez Navarro despite the gap of 20 rankings places separating them.  The world No. 17 fought to turn the match around, however, as fatigue likely caught up with a Czech opponent playing two singles matches consecutively.  A three-set comeback for Suarez Navarro edged Spain back in front with just one more win needed to reach the semifinals.

For a short time, it looked as though the home crowd would not need to wait long before celebrating.  Czech captain Petr Pala substituted Lucie Safarova, the best Czech woman outside Kvitova, for the fourth rubber despite an illness with which she had entered the weekend.  That gamble threatened to backfire when Silvia Soler-Espinosa (substituting for the weary Torro-Flor) won the first set to put Spain within range.  But Safarova has shown her mettle in Fed Cup before, delivering the two crucial victories that lifted the Czech Republic to victory in the 2012 final.  She held firm again, restoring order in the last two sets by losing just four games.

With the tie hinging on the doubles, Spain substituted Suarez Navarro in the hope that she could deliver all three victories that the hosts needed.  Meanwhile, the Czech Republic pulled Safarova out of doubles and replaced her with Zahlavova Strycova, who hadn’t played since Saturday and was by far the most rested singles player on either team.  The visitors also held a key advantage with the presence of Andrea Hlavackova, a three-time major champion in doubles with success on all surfaces.  Spain could field no doubles specialist approaching Hlavackova’s quality.

All the same, victory did not come easily for the Czechs.  They needed to weather a 16-point tiebreak in a first set that Spain did not lack chances to win.  Not yielding even at that stage, Suarez Navarro and Soler-Espinosa battled through epic game after epic game early in the second set.  The Czechs finally secured the decisive break in the seventh game before closing out their hard-fought victory two games later.  Able to overcome difficult conditions and a tenacious opponent in an away tie, they kept alive their bid for a third Fed Cup title in four years.

The Fed Cup semifinals, held on April 19-20, will feature a clash of the last two champions when the Czech Republic hosts Italy.  If both teams are at full strength, that home-court advantage should give the powerful Czech shot-makers an edge.  The other semifinal pits Germany against host Australia.  Germany should be favored to advance into an all-European final of neighboring nations.

For now, though, Czech Republic should bask in the glow of its well-earned achievement in a tie that hung in the balance from start to finish.