Alison Riske beat Andrea Petkovic to put the United States up 1-0 on Saturday in a Fed Cup World Group tie that got off to an awkward start thanks to a gaffe involving the German national anthem. "The USTA extends a sincere apology to the German Fed Cup team & fans 4 the outdated National Anthem," the US Tennis Association said in a tweet. "This mistake will not occur again."
The apology came after a performance of a stanza of the anthem that dates back to World War II and which has been officially eliminated as part of the anthem since the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification in 1990.
"@usta we hope so..." the German tennis federation tweeted, prompting the USTA to respond, "@DTB Tennis We can assure that it won't. Again, our sincere apologies."
It was the start of what turned out to be a tough day for Germany.
Riske overcame her nerves to fashion a 7-6 (12/10), 6-2 victory over the experienced Petkovic, who came into the tie with 12 Fed Cup singles titles on her resume.
After roaring to a 5-0 lead in the second set, Riske fought through a tense spell to seal the victory and give a leg up to surprise Australian Open semi-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe, who was to take on Julia Goerges in the second singles.
Vandeweghe took the first set from Goerges 6-3 and was up 3-1 in the second when Goerges slipped on a rain-slicked baseline, hurting her knee. A medical timeout coincided with a rain delay, and the match never resumed.
The were to resume on Sunday, meaning both will be in singles action twice on the final day of the best-of-five match tie - with Vandeweghe also slated for doubles.
The winner of the tie will face either the defending champion Czech Republic or Spain, who were level at 1-1 after day one in Ostrava.
The United States own a record 17 Fed Cup titles, but haven't won the nations tournament since 2000.
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