LONDON: Russia reached the Fed Cup final on Sunday, sealing victory at home over Germany in the last doubles rubber.

Elena Vesnina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won 6-2, 6-3 against Andrea Petkovic and Sabine Lisicki to stop a German comeback that had seen them bounce back from 2-0 down in the best-of-five tie after Saturday’s play.

Russia’s win sets up a match with defending champions the Czech Republic, who beat France 3-1 in the other World Group semi-final.

The final will be played in the Czech Republic on Nov 14 and 15 because Moscow hosted the last meeting between the teams, when the Czechs won the 2011 final 3-2. The Czechs have won the Fed Cup in three of the last four years, while Russia are without a title since 2008.

Vesnina and Pavlyuchenkova looked confident from the start of the decider at Sochi’s Adler Arena producing three breaks in the opening set for a 1-0 lead after 38 minutes, while Lisicki and Petkovic broke back on one occasion.

The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first as the Russians broke their opponents serve on three more occasions sealing their victory with an ace by Pavlyuchenkova.

Earlier, Germany’s Angelique Kerber beat Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-0 to level the match at 2-2 after Petkovic had beaten Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-1 in straight sets to reduce Russia’s lead.

German captain Barbara Rittner entered Petkovic and Kerber as overnight replacements for the reverse singles in place of Lisicki and Julia Goerges.

On Saturday, Kuznetsova beat Goerges 6-4, 6-4 to put Russia into the lead, while Pavlyuchenkova battled back from a set down to defeat Lisicki to give her country a comfortable 2-0 lead.

At the hardcourts of the CEZ Arena in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, the Czechs reached the fourth Fed Cup final in five years by defeating France after Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova won the first reverse singles on Sunday, beating Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-4 for an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Lucie Safarova earned the first Czech point by beating Garcia 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 on Saturday after saving five match points before Kvitova swept aside Kristina Mladenovic 6-3 6-4 to make it 2-0.

In the dead doubles rubber on Sunday, Mladenovic and Pauline Parmentier beat Safarova and Barbora Strycova 0-6, 6-3, 10-8 to round off the final score at 3-1.

Czech captain Petr Pala, who has been with the team since 2008, said the tie with France was far from easy.

“You may say it was 3-0, but it was terribly close,” he said. “Lucie made a great comeback from five match points against her in the first rubber and Petra had to play great today to succeed. It’s tough on Caroline, but she has played two great rubbers.”

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2015

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