THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KHARKIV, Ukraine — Serena Williams defeated Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday to send the United States back into the Fed Cup World Group by clinching a series victory over Ukraine.
Williams’ victory gave the U.S. an unassailable 3-0 lead and Christina McHale then won 7-5, 6-3 against 17-year-old Ukrainian Elina Svitolina to secure a sweep of the singles matches. Americans Liezel Huber and Sloane Stephens completed a 5-0 rout with a 6-4, 6-1 win over 19-year-old twins Lyudmyla and Nadiya Kichenok in doubles.
Williams was making her first Fed Cup appearance on foreign soil in more than a decade to help gain eligibility for the U.S. team at the London Olympics.
"We’re back in the World Group where we want to be and it feels really good to get two points," she said after the match.
Tsurenko frustrated Williams early on with accurate hitting from the baseline on the red clay court.
"What’s your problem?" Williams roared at herself after hitting two consecutive aces to prevent a break in the sixth game.
The 22-year-old Ukrainian pressured Williams’ serve after giving up a break, but couldn’t convert two break points. Williams broke again to take the set.
"She has a good game. She has a lot of power," Williams said of her opponent.
Williams became more relaxed as the match progressed, breaking twice early in the second set.
"I had a little bit of a slow start, but I just knew that I could keep fighting," she said. "I just want to go out there and be super relaxed. I play better when I’m relaxed."
Tsurenko broke Williams to prevent her from serving out the match at 5-1, but the powerful returning of the 13-time Grand Slam champion helped her break for a third time in the set and clinch the win.
"It was hard as she was playing freely and with great confidence," Tsurenko said.
McHale’s match with Svitolina was tighter. The 19-year-old American broke once to take a close first set, but breezed through the second, breaking her younger opponent’s serve twice.
Jankovic, Ivanovic win reverse singles as Serbia beats Russia to reach 1st Fed Cup final
MOSCOW (AP) — Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic won their reverse singles matches on Sunday to put Serbia into the Fed Cup final for the first time with a 3-2 win over Russia in the semifinals.
Jankovic defeated two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-4 to score the decisive third point and give Serbia an insurmountable 3-1 lead.
Ivanovic had put Serbia up 2-1 on the indoor clay court at the Megasport Arena, rallying to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 in the first reverse singles.
Serbia will face defending champion Czech Republic in the final on Nov. 3-4.
Jankovic easily won the first set but was broken in her first service game in the second set. She then rallied from 3-0 down, taking five consecutive games and closing out the match on her first match point.
"It’s a historic moment for us," Jankovic said. "I cannot even believe that we are in the final. We came a long way and I’m very happy we were able to win this match."
Kuznetsova said she could not challenge Jankovic.
"Jelena started really hard today and dominated with her rhythm," she said. "I broke her in the second set, but with the one-set advantage she was very confident and played strong on several key points to break back. I couldn’t do anything with her playing so strongly."
Pavlyuchenkova won five consecutive games to take the first set. But Ivanovic, who hasn’t dropped a set in their three previous meetings on the WTA Tour, turned the match her way, winning 10 consecutive games to level the match at one-all and go 4-0 up in the third set.
"She (Pavlyuchenkova) was playing really very, very well," Ivanovic said. "But I’m really happy I managed to get back in the match."
Serving for the match at 5-2 and 40-30 up, the 2008 French Open champion twice returned wide and Pavlyuchenkova secured the break with a precise backhand down the line. The Russian then lost her next serve at love as Ivanovic closed the match with a forehand down the line.
"I started the match pretty good, but lost concentration after the fifth game," Pavlyuchenkova said. "And my slow start in the second set was the key to my loss. You can’t begin a set like this against an opponent like Ivanovic."
Pavlyuchenkova later paired with Elena Vesnina to defeat the Serbian pair of Bojana Janovski and Aleksandra Krunic 6-4, 6-0 in the doubles match.
The two teams split the opening singles on Saturday. Jankovic won the first point for Serbia, defeating Pavlyuchenkova, but Kuznetsova downed Ivanovic in the second match.
Serbia had reached the semifinals for the first time and, with the two former top-ranked players, was considered the favourite.
Russia, a four-time champion, had beaten Serbia in all three of their previous meetings, but was without its two top players: Maria Sharapova and Vera Zvonareva.
Stosur defeats Petkovic to give Australia win vs. Germany and claim Fed Cup World Group place
STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Samantha Stosur won her second singles match to give Australia a spot in the Fed Cup World Group by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in their playoff with Germany on Sunday.
Germany claimed the two remaining dead rubbers for a final score of 3-2 to Australia.
The fifth-ranked Stosur defeated Germany’s No. 1 Andrea Petkovic 6-4, 6-1 in 1 hour, 14 minutes at the Porsche Arena.
Petkovic, who is ranked 11th, was playing her first competitive match since returning from a lower back injury and was unable to prevent the U.S. Open champion from dominating the second set.
"I’ve played well," Stosur said. "To put the team through to the World Group again is a really nice feeling."
Stosur also beat Germany’s Angelique Kerber in straight sets on Saturday, before 50th-ranked Jarmila Gajdosova beat Julia Goerges — a player ranked 34 places above her — to leave the hosts facing relegation to World Group II.
Germany was forced into the playoff after losing to the Czech Republic in the first round in February.
After more than three months out, Petkovic was only set to play in Sunday’s doubles match, but Germany coach Barbara Rittner brought in the 24-year-old against Australia’s No. 1 in the hope of becoming only the fifth country to recover from a 2-0 deficit since the best-of-five format was adopted in 1995.
"I was prepared not to play at all," Petkovic said. "But I knew as of yesterday evening and I prepared myself as well as possible, but unfortunately it wasn’t my day today."
Stosur’s dominance sealed Australia’s return to the World Group after a one-year absence.
Germany did salvage some pride later Sunday, when Kerber beat Olivia Rogowska 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth dead rubber on the Australian’s Fed Cup debut, before Petkovic teamed up with Goerges to defeat Gajdosova and Casey Dellacqua 6-3, 6-4 in the doubles match.
Australia now has eight wins from 12 meetings between the countries.
Cibulkova and Hantuchova both win to lead Slovakia past Spain in Fed Cup World Group playoff
MARBELLA, Spain (AP) — Dominika Cibulkova and Daniela Hantuchova won their reverse singles matches to earn Slovakia a place in the Fed Cup World Group after building an insurmountable 3-1 lead over Spain on Sunday.
Cibulkova won her second singles match of the playoff series by beating Silvia Soler-Espinosa in straight sets, while Hantuchova had to rally to from a set down to defeat Lourdes Dominguez-Lino 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Spain’s Arantxa Parra-Santonja and Nuria Llagostera won the remaining doubles rubber, beating downing Magdalena Rybarikova and Anna Schmiedlova 6-0, 6 (7)-7, 6-3, to make it 3-2 to Slovakia.
The 17th-ranked Cibulkova used her powerful forehand to break Spain’s No. 1 six times en route to winning 6-4, 6-4.
Cibulkova slapped Soler-Espinosa’s serve across the court for her 27th winner of the match to claim victory on the red-clay court in one hour and 51 minutes.
"It wasn’t easy today, it was an especially tough match," Cibulkova said. "She was playing aggressively and serving well. But I showed that I am better maybe mentally.
"I was just going for it and I was confident, and that was the key to winning."
The 22-year-old Slovak player also beat Dominguez-Lino in straight sets on Saturday.
Dominguez-Lino dominated Hantuchova early to move ahead in just over half an hour, using a combination of low ground strokes and drop shots to keep the world’s 20th ranked player off-balance.
But Hantuchova settled down and overcame 67 unforced errors to seal the crucial win in two hours and 44 minutes with an unreachable backhand winner.
Petra Kvitova downs Francesca Schiavone to clinch Fed Cup semis for Czechs vs. Italy
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) — Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova used her powerful serve and forehand to clinch victory for Czech Republic over Italy in the Fed Cup semifinals and give the host a chance to defend its title.
The third-ranked Kvitova overcame Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 (1) on Sunday to give the Czechs an insurmountable 3-0 lead and wrap up the best-of-the five series on an indoor hardcourt at the CEZ Arena.
The Czechs will host Serbia in November’s final.
Sara Errani defeated Andrea Hlavackova 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the second reverse singles later Sunday for Italy’s first point, before Hlavackova teamed up with Lucie Hradecka to make it 4-1 after the final doubles against Errani and Flavia Pennetta. Pennetta had to retire at 5-6 due to a wrist injury.
"I really wanted to be in the final again," Kvitova said. "It’s unbelievable. It was an unbelievable feeling (to win).
The Czechs beat Russia in last year’s final with Kvitova winning both her singles matches.
Kvitova converted her second match point with a forehand winner to improve her Fed Cup singles record to 15-4.
She has won her last 10 Fed Cup singles matches.
Kvitova didn’t waste time in the opening set, breaking her 12th-ranked opponent to jump into a 3-0 lead before dropping her serve twice, allowing Schiavone to come back. Under pressure, the Italian saved three set points in the 10th game before netting a backhand on the fourth.
"Francesca surprised me," Kvitova said. "She played long returns and I could hardly do anything with that but to rely on my serve."
Schiavone fought hard to get back into the second, breaking Kvitova in the fifth game. But she failed to serve the set out and Kvitova dominated the resulting tiebreaker.
"It was important for me to win, it’s a confidence boost," said Kvitova, who has played only three matches — and lost two — on the WTA Tour since she helped the Czechs beat Germany 4-1 in February.
In Saturday’s opening singles, Lucie Safarova defeated Schiavone 7-6 (3), 6-1 before Kvitova doubled the advantage by beating Errani 6-4, 6-3 to give the Czechs a commanding 2-0 lead.
Serbia completed a victory over Russia in the other semifinal on Sunday.
Japan leads Belgium 3-0 to secure promotion to Fed Cup’s top-tier World Group
TOKYO (AP) — Japan qualified for the Fed Cup’s top-tier World Group when Ayumi Morita beat Belgium’s Tamaryn Hendler 7-5, 6-2 in Sunday’s reverse singles.
Morita’s win at Ariake Colosseum gave Japan an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the World Group playoff.
Morita beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-4, 6-4 in the first match on Saturday and Kimiko Date-Krumm overpowered Hendler 6-1, 6-4 in the second match.
Japan will return to the eight-nation World Group for the first time since 2007. Belgium will be relegated to World Group II.
Belgium was playing the series without its top three players — Yanina Wickmayer, four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters and Kirsten Flipkens.
"The Belgians didn’t have their best players but we did what we needed to do," Morita said. "I’m relieved that I won."
Van Uytvanck defeated Kurumi Nara 7-6, 6-0 in the dead fourth rubber to give Belgium a consolation point. It was 18-year-old van Uytvanck’s first Fed Cup victory.