Billie Jean King Cup: Iga Swiatek's Poland Beat Czech Republic to Set-Up Italy Semi-Final

Poland's Iga Swiatek powers her team into semi-finals

World number one Iga Swiatek recovered from a poor start to beat Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets and send Poland into the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup on Thursday.

Swiatek dropped her serve twice in the opening three games of the match before rallying to eventually win 6-3 6-2 and give Poland an unassailable 3-1 lead over the Czech Republic.

Victory for the Poles means they will face Italy in the semi-finals on Saturday after the Italians overcame the United States 2-1 in their quarter-final.

On Friday, Australia will take on Belarus and Switzerland will face Kazakhstan in the other quarter-finals.

Swiatek finds her rhythm to inspire the team

After a shaky start, the Australian Open and French Open champion Swiatek found her range in the fourth game, breaking Vondrousova's serve to level at 2-2.

Swiatek, 21, then held her own serve before breaking Vondrousova again to take the first set.

Swiatek powers Poland to victory

The second set followed a similar pattern, with Swiatek breaking Vondrousova's serve twice more to seal victory in 75 minutes.

Swiatek's win was Poland's second point of the day after Magda Linette had earlier defeated Karolina Pliskova 6-4 6-1.

The Czechs had pulled one point back when Vondrousova and Karolina Muchova won the doubles rubber against Alicja Rosolska and Katarzyna Kawa 6-2 6-3.