Defending champions Russia wrapped up a 5-0 thrashing of China on Sunday to book a Fed Cup semi-final against Italy in a repeat of the 2007 final after the Italians dispatched France in Orleans.
The Russians have dominated the tournament in recent years and on current form look set for their fifth title in the past six years after Anna Chakvetadze motored past Yan Zi 6-1, 6-2 for the decisive third point before debutant teen Alisa Kleibanova crushed Sun Tian-Tian 6-1, 6-1.
Star pair Elena Dementieva, the Beijing Olympic champion, and Svetlana Kuznetsova completed the whitewash with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 doubles success over Yan and Sun.
PHOTO: EPA
Chinese skipper Zhang Qi strove to lift a depleted squad — missing the injured Zheng Jie as well as Li Na — but was unable to prevent Russia repeating their 5-0 romp in the countries’ only previous meeting in 2002.
Italy, meanwhile, reached their third semi-final in four years after Flavia Pennetta obliterated Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-2.
France, champions in 2003, slumped to their third opening round loss since 2005 after Pennetta saw off former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo on Saturday in a bad-tempered three-setter.
The Czech Republic also moved into the semis for the first time in 12 years after beating fellow five-time champions Spain 4-1.
Petra Kvitova saw off Nuria Llagostera 6-4, 7-5 and Lucie Safarova moved past Carla Suarez 6-4, 6-3 after the teams had ended the first day all square.
The Czechs can now look forward to a home encounter with the US, who defeated Argentina 3-2.
The US, playing without the superstar Williams sisters, also got a key contribution from a teenager, as 17-year-old Melanie Oudin shrugged off a 30-minute rain delay and rallied from a set down to defeat Argentina’s Betina Jozami 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 and force a deciding doubles match in Surprise, Arizona.
Julie Ditty and Liezel Huber then cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Gisela Dulko and Jozami.
Earlier on Sunday, Dulko defeated US veteran Jill Craybas, 6-1, 6-3, to give the Argentinians a 2-1 advantage.
The match was the second, which was claimed by Dulko, who defeated Oudin on Saturday — when Craybas defeated Jozami.
Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic gave Serbia an unassailable lead over Japan to send Serbia into the World Group play-offs for the first time following a 6-3, 6-2 win over veteran Ai Sugiyama before Ana Ivanovic beat Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-2.
Japan won the dead rubber doubles to make the final result 4-1 for Serbia, which had taken control on Saturday, when French Open champion and world No. 8 Ivanovic showed glimpses of her form last year to defeat Sugiyama 6-4, 6-4, before Jankovic destroyed 18-year-old Morita 6-1, 6-0.
Slovakia, Germany and Ukraine also won their World Group II ties.
■MOVISTAR OPEN
AP, VINA DEL MAR, CHILE
Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile defeated Argentina’s Jose Acasuso 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday to claim his fourth Movistar Open title.
After a smooth first set for Gonzalez, fourth-seeded Acasuso upped the tempo in the second.
With the scores level at 3-3, defending champion Gonzalez broke Acasuso’s serve and then took advantage of a double fault by the Argentine to move ahead 5-3. Gonzalez then held his serve to win the match.
■SA TENNIS OPEN
AFP, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his third ATP title on Sunday with a 6-4, 7-6 triumph over fellow Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in a thrilling SA Tennis Open final.
The 23-year-old Le Mans-born Tsonga won in Bangkok and Paris last year and succeeded in the revived South African tournament without dropping a single set in five matches.
■ZAGREB INDOORS
AFP, ZAGREB
Croatia’s Marin Cilic won the ATP Zagreb tournament with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of his countryman Mario Ancic on Sunday.
Second-seeded Cilic, who did not lose a set the entire week, dominated as Ancic simply did not have an answer to his forehand.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier