MONTREAL -- Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., outlasted Lesia Tsurenko 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5), to give Canada a 2-1 lead over Ukraine in a best-of-five Fed Cup World Group II playoff on Sunday.
The 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 Gabriela Dabrowski into the final singles match later Sunday for Canada against veteran Kateryna Bondarenko. Dabrowski is ranked 210th in the world in doubles, but is 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 hand 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.
Canada endured an injury nightmare on Saturday.
Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont. 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 was unable to complete her match with Tsurenko, retiring with painful cramps in her legs in the third set. Even Bouchard was hurt, 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.
Canada had yet to decide who will team with Gabriela Dabrowski in the series-ending doubles match later Sunday.
