Svitolina secures 'historical moment' for Ukraine in BJK Cup

Elina Svitolina is a former world number three

Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk secured Ukraine's place in the Billie Jean King Cup semi-finals for the first time with victory over Spain.

World number 13 Svitolina held off Paula Badosa to win 5-7 6-2 7-5 and give Ukraine an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three tie.

Svitolina had been 4-1 up in the third set before former world number two Badosa rallied.

Badosa had a break point at 5-5 in the deciding set which, had she converted, would have left her serving for the match.

However, Svitolina held her off and broke serve in the next game to secure victory.

Kostyuk earlier got Ukraine off to a winning start with a 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 victory over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in Shenzhen, China.

"I wouldn't say it was my greatest performance, but for the team, for the country, it's difficult to produce a perfect match," Svitolina said.

"I'm very happy I could stay strong and really tough to get the win for team Ukraine. It's such a historical moment for us."

Ukraine will face defending champions Italy in the semi-finals.

"There are going to be a lot of nerves, so we have to deal with that. It's going to be a really interesting tie," Svitolina added.

Great Britain begin their bid for a first BJK Cup title on Thursday against Japan, with the tie live across the BBC.