MONTREAL — Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., outlasted Lesia Tsurenko 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5) but Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski fell to Kateryna Bondarenko to leave Canada and Ukraine even at 2-2 after singles play in a Fed Cup World Group II playoff on Sunday.
The best-of-five series is to be decided in a doubles match later Sunday with Dabrowski and Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., representing Canada.
Bouchard's two hours 39-minute marathon left both players barely able to remain standing in the third set, but Tsuranko looked to be the worse off with apparent cramping in the legs, while Bouchard seemed to be struggling to breathe.
Bouchard finally prevailed in the tiebreak to give an edge to an already injury-struck Canadian team.
Injuries forced doubles ace Dabrowski into the final singles match and, while she won the first set, Bondarenko adjusted and had little trouble the rest of the way for a 3-6,6-2, 6-1 win.
Dabrowski, who only played singles because Montreal's Francoise Abanda and Andreescu were injured on Saturday, is ranked 10th in the world in doubles, but 364th in singles.
Tsurenko, who won Saturday when Andreescu retired in the third set with painful leg cramps, broke service for a 3-2 first-set lead. Bouchard was down 40-15 but reeled off four straight points to break serve and tie the set 4-4, but the Ukrainian broke back and served out the set.
Bouchard was up 2-0 and 40-0 in the second set and the packed grandstands at the 1,800-seat indoor court IGA Stadium were in full roar until Tsurenko turned up the tempo to win five straight points for a service break. But the Canadian came up with two more breaks to even the match.
The final set was highlighted at 2-2 by a more-than 15 minute game in which Bouchard fought off five break points before finally hitting long to give Tsurenko the lead. But then Bouchard broke back to make it 3-3. Then the two exhausted players toughed it out, with both players obviously suffering on court.
Tsurenko, massaging her legs between points, was unable to jump on her serve and just tried to hit as hard as possible and make quick points.
"It was tough," said Tsurenko. "I was hoping just for some miracle shots.
"Unfortunately it didn't work at the end but that's tennis. Anything can happen."
She said playing on a "sticky" court was draining for the players, but she said Andreescu and Bouchard playing their best tennis also sapped her energy.
"Genie played really well so I had to move a lot and, because of (Saturday's) match I feel I was physically a little bit weaker than usual," she said. "I think that's why this happened because I'm usually strong and I can play a whole tournament without having any kind of trouble."
Dabrowski was making nearly all her shots in a 28-minute first set, but it appeared that 78th-ranked Bondarenko was only sizing up her game before imposing her solid baseline play.
Canada endured an injury nightmare on Saturday.
Andreescu was called into service when Francoise Abanda of Montreal fell hard on her face during a warm-up drill just before her scheduled match, suffering a bruised eye. She tried hitting some balls Sunday morning but had to stop. She tweeted that she was suffering from whiplash and was unable to serve.
Andreescu had been unable to complete her match with Tsurenko, retiring with painful cramps in her legs in the third set. It was decided she would skip her second singles match but stay fresh in case she was needed for doubles.
Even Bouchard was hurt on Saturday, but was able to finish off Bondarenko despite jamming her left hand in a collision with a courtside towel rack.
The 24-year-old Bouchard returned to Fed Cup play after a two-year absence to get in matches and try to claw her way back up the rankings. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist reached as high as fifth in the world before falling back in recent years.
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