So, Jankovic defeated Kuznetsova 6-3 4-6 6-3, but her countrywoman Ana Ivanovic couldn’t finish off the tie and lost to Alisa Kleybanova 6-2 6-3 in the following match. Ivanovic’s free fall ended a long time ago, but the sad thing is that she is still lying wounded on the ground.

With the result tied at 2-2, the decisive doubles match was played, and as Jankovic and Ivanovic are not used to playing doubles, they were knocked out by Kuznetsova and Kleybanova 6-1 6-4.

Four-time Fed Cup champions Russia thus entered the Fed Cup semifinals which will be played on 24-25 April. Their opponent will be the US, who won 4-1 in France, without the Williams sisters. (photo via Blic)

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Jelena Jankovic recovering from a set and 4-1 down to beat Alisa Kleybanova

World No.4 Kuznetsova defeated Ivanovic 6-1 6-4 in the first match of the day. After blowing the Serb in the first set, Kuznetsova rallied from 4-2 down in the second to seal the first win for Russia. Once ranked No.1 now No.23 Ivanovic made 50 unforced errors and six double faults.

The second match of the day looked to be heading in the direction of Russia’s victory as well, but world No.8 Jankovic overturned the result while trailing 4-6 1-4 and won 11 games in a row to defeat 31st-ranked Kleybanova 4-6 6-4 6-0.

As you can see, after the first day of the Serbia vs. Russia Fed Cup quarterfinal the countries are tied at 1-1. Reverse singles and doubles will be played tomorrow, on Sunday. (photos via Blic)

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Russia and Serbia will face each other in this weekend's Fed Cup first-round tie played in Belgrade, Serbia.

The latest news is that Russia’s team will be stronger than previously planned, as their highest ranked player world No.4 Svetlana Kuznetsova changed her mind and joined world No.31 Alisa Kleybanova, No.38 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No.40 Vera Dushevina in the team.

However, Serbia’s team is likely to be weaker than expected because of Jelena Jankovic’s health problems. It should have consisted of former world No.1s Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic, along with Ana Jovanovic and Bojana Jovanovski, but now we will see what will happen.

Here’s what Jankovic told her official website:

No, I haven't come to Belgrade yet, and I'm still in Florida, where I'm fighting with back injury received in Melbourne. I didn't want to speak in public about the problems that struck me in Australia, about the cold and the back injury that occurred during a practice while trying to change the way I served, because many would describe it to as a justification for the lost match […] Unfortunately, the situation got complicated, so I'm still in Florida, sad and in great uncertainty whether I would start the journey to my home town.

Serbia is making its World Group debut. Russia won the Fed Cup four times between 2004 and 2008 and Kuznetsova was part of three winning Russian teams. (photo by our reader Elisa)

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Italy followed up their 2-0 score on Saturday with two more victories on Sunday to beat the United States 4-0 in the Fed Cup final and claim their second Fed Cup title.

On Saturday Italian Flavia Pennetta beat American Alexa Glatch 6-3 6-1, and Francesca Schiavone overcame Melanie Oudin 7-6(2) 6-2. The decisive victory came on Sunday when Pennetta earned an insurmountable 3-0 lead by defeating Oudin 7-5 6-2 in front of home crowd on the clay courts of the Circolo del Tennis Rocco Polimeni.

The doubles rubber was played, and even the world No.1 in doubles Liezel Huber couldn't help the Unites States win at least one match. Huber and Vania King lost to Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 4-6 6-3 11-9.

Italy had also won Fed Cup title in 2006. (photo via Fed Cup)

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Italy, the 2006 champions, defeated Russia after Francesca Schiavone's hard-fought 7-6 4-6 6-2 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova gave Italy an unassailable 3-1 advantage (Italy eventually won 4-1).

That one victory of Russia, winner of four of the last five Fed Cups, came thanks to Svetlana Kuznetsova who blasted away Flavia Pennetta 6-0 6-3.

The United States edged hosts Czech Republic 3-2 in the other semifinal in Brno with Liezel Huber and Bethanie Mattek-Sands recovering from losing the first set to defeat Iveta Benesova and Kveta Peschke 2-6 7-6 6-1 in the deciding doubles rubber. (source: CNN)

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Hi people, I’m back from Belgrade and Serbia vs. Japan Fed Cup tie and I’ll share some of my impressions with you.

First of all, not surprisingly, it was not much of a challenge for Serbia to beat Japan and reach the Fed Cup World Group play-offs for the first time.

Serbia cruised to an unassailable 3-0 lead with world No.3 Jelena Jankovic beating world No.26 Ai Sugiyama 6-3 6-2 in the Belgrade Arena. On Saturday, Serbia had established a 2-0 lead with world No.8 Ana Ivanovic defeating Ai Sugiyama 6-4 6-4 and Jelena Jankovic cruising past Ayumi Morita, ranked 86th in the world, 6-1 6-0.

In the fourth dead singles rubber, Ivanovic notched up her second win of the weekend by romping past Morita 6-1 6-2. Team Japan, consisting of Rika Fujiwara and Aiko Nakamura, won the doubles match, when the Serbian team of Jelena Jankovic and Ana Jovanovic retired after the second set, so the final score of the Serbia vs. Japan Fed Cup tie was 4-1.

The atmosphere in the Belgrade Arena was very good, although not too ecstatic because there were no close matches. However, the crowd was active and, as I learned, it was the record number of spectators for the Fed Cup, as on Saturday 15,118 people came to support their country’s team. On Sunday, the number of spectators didn’t drop, at least not that I could notice.

There was one major drawback, though. A lot of people, including me, couldn’t see the scoreboard. Imagine that! And the chair umpire wasn’t talking clearly enough. So, we had to count the points by ourselves, which was a hassle. Hahaha, one woman beside me was even calling someone on the phone to inform her about the current score. Organizers, are you listening?

Overall, however, I had a great time, and I want to thank all the players for giving their maximum and making our weekend entertaining. I have some more pictures and two videos I think. As you can imagine, they are not of high quality, but hey, better something than nothing. In the coming hours I will select some pics and vids and add them to our Facebook group, as well as to my Flickr and YouTube accounts.

By the way, as you can notice, Jankovic wasn't wearing her green ANTA dress, while Ivanovic, of course, stayed with her purple adidas one.

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On Saturday, Vera Zvonareva beat Anabel Medina Garrigues and Svetlana Kuznetsova dismissed Carla Suarez Navarro, so Russia took a 2-0 lead.

The Russian team have won their fourth Fed Cup title in five years. They were the champions last year too, beating Italy in the final.

"It was a tough match and I was never really close," said Medina Garrigues.

"She really stepped up on the big points (but) we can't criticize this team – we did very well to get to the final and we can be satisfied overall."

Russia has six players in the Top 20 and it comes as no surprise they were able to retain the trophy despite the absence of some of their aces.

UPDATE: Final score was 4-0 as Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina  defeated Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives and Carla Suarez Navarro 62 61. (photo via Yahoo)

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Russia

Vera Zvonareva beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3 6-4 and Svetlana Kuznetsova topped Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1 6-3 which gave Russia a 2-0 lead in the Fed Cup final on Saturday.

The pressure is on Medina Garrigues now. If the Spaniard doesn’t overcome Kuznetsova in the third rubber, Russia will again win Fed Cup.

The reverse singles are held Sunday, with a doubles match held as a tiebreaker if necessary. (source: Women Who Serve, photo via Fed Cup)

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World No.2 Ivanovic defeated Ozegovic, ranked 150th, 7-5 6-1 and gave Serbia an unassailable 3-0 lead for a promotion into the World Group II.

When illness forced Ivanovic to skip her Saturday's match, she was replaced by much less experienced Ana Jovanovic who managed to score the first point for Serbia. Later in the day, world No.5 Jelena Jankovic also defeated her Croatian opponent.

After the dead rubbers, the final score was that Serbia defeated Croatia 3-2. (image via Great Tennis Photos)

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Russia and Spain eased past their semifinal opponents on Sunday, and will face each other in September's Fed Cup final.

Russia and Spain quickly finished off the job they started on Saturday, with Vera Zvonareva beating U.S. player Vania King 4-6 6-3 6-2 to give Russia an unassailable 3-0 lead in the tie and Nuria Llagostera Vives overcoming China's Peng Shuai 6-4 6-4 to do the same for Spain.

After the dead rubbers, Russia's tie finished 3-2 and Spain's 4-1.

Spain will host Russia for the final, and Spain captain Miguel Margets Lobato believes his team is good enough to beat the defending champions, who have reached their fourth Fed Cup final in five years.

"The Russian team is very powerful with players such as (Maria) Sharapova and also other players in the top 10 but the Spanish team is also strong and we think we have the opportunity to win the cup," he said. (photos via Fed Cup)

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