Tennis-Czech mates ready for Fed Cup final

By Patrick Johnston SINGAPORE, Oct 28 (Reuters) - After suffering her eighth consecutive loss to Petra Kvitova, Czech compatriot Lucie Safarova was understandably relieved to know she would be lining up alongside rather than opposite her friend at the Fed Cup final next month. The two are key to the country's hopes of retaining the team title when they host Russia at a sold out 02 Arena in Prague from Nov. 14-15. Kvitova showed French Open finalist Safarova she was in good nick for the team event by beating her 7-5 7-5 at the WTA Finals in Singapore on Wednesday, to get her campaign back on track after an opening loss at the elite eight-woman event. "Well, I prefer playing with Petra," the 28-year-old Safarova joked after seeing her semi-final hopes in Singapore fade. "We always had a lot of fun through Fed Cup weeks. We are a great team, which we show with our results in last few years. "I'm excited about that. It will be nice to play in Prague, at home, in front of our crowd. We have sold out the arena already, so I'm sure it will be amazing." Safarova's appearance in the elite end-of-season tournament was her first and although she lost on Wednesday and also her opener against Spain's Garbine Muguruza on Monday she has shown strong form after recent illness. Double Wimbledon champion Kvitova said Wednesday's victory, like so many of their previous matches both in tournaments and practice over the last decade, simply came down to a couple of key points. "Actually these kind of scores we have in the practices as well, so it's kind of very similar," the 25-year-old said. "It's difficult to say (what the difference was). I think in the last game she missed two forehands down the line. I think that's her best shot." Despite never losing to Safarova in eight matches, Kvitova said she never looked forward to playing the reigning French and Australian Open doubles champion. "Before the match we have the same locker room and we were just chatting normally, not like we go to play each other soon," the world number five said. "She's good person and it's just, you know, kind of sad that we have to play each other in the group already. "We actually are good friends from the Fed Cup, so I'm really glad the Fed Cup is coming soon and we going to be colleagues and not opponents. "It's tough to play her for sure, not because she's only like very good player right now, she's in good form, but also playing friend it's a little bit tougher with emotion and everything." (Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)