Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic gave Serbia a 2-1 victory over Romania today in Fed Cup in Budapest. Serbia was the favorite, having two top 5 players in their team, but the victory over Romania was hard fought. Doubles were deciding the winner, and all the three matches played were three-setters.

Firstly, world No.2 Ana Ivanovic beat world No.150 Monica Niculescu 5-7, 6-4, 7-5. Then, Jelena Jankovic lost her singles match against world No.112 Sorana Cirstea 3-6, 6-3, 4-6. As the result after singles was 1-1, the teams had to play doubles to decide the winner.

In the deciding match, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic played against Monica Niculescu and Sorana Cirstea. The match itself was extremely difficult, and was even interrupted by one incident. The incident happened when a man from the Romanian Tennis Association got into fight with the security when Ana and Jelena had a break point at 4-3 in the second set. He started approaching the chair umpire and the Serbian box, and the fight started when the security tried to stop him. The match continued despite the incident, and the Serbian duo won 2-6, 7-6, 7-6. Who would have expected such a battle! (source: B92)

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Ana Ivanovic comfortably beat world No.215 Urszula Radwanska 6-3, 6-1, while Jelena Jankovic overcome the elder and much higher ranked Radwanska sister, Agnieszka, in three sets 6-4 6-7 7-5. These two victories in singles gave Serbia a 2-0 lead and hence victory over Poland in Fed Cup.

In an interview after her win, Ivanovic was asked whether she would play doubles with Jankovic at the Olympics. Ivanovic said that she would like to, and that the two of them would be likely to win the trophy. However, her coaches want her to focus on singles and their attitude probably won’t change. Still, she wouldn’t completely dismiss the idea. (photo via WTA World)

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Defending champions Russia, with Maria Sharapova in the team (finally!), arrived in Israel for a press conference ahead of their Fed Cup tie versus the host country's team.

Australian Open champ Maria Sharapova, Anna Chakvetadze, Dinara Safina and Elena Vesnina play for Russia. World No. 17 Shahar Peer will lead the Israeli team this weekend, which also includes Tzipi Obziler, Keren Shlomo, and Julia Glushko. (via Down the Line)

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Anna Chakvetadze was named the Female Tennis Player of 2007 yesterday at the National Tennis Awards ceremony in Russia, while the winning Russia Fed Cup team won the award the Team of 2007.

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Members of Russia's winning Fed Cup team have questioned the motives of Maria Sharapova who attended the final against Italy to show her support.

Maria Sharapova has never played Fed Cup for Russia, having had her injuries as a reason, but she has always underlined that she wants to play for her native country. But is Sharapova telling the truth? Many people believe that the 20-year-old from Siberia is just making herself available for Fed Cup in order to be eligible to play at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Kuznetsova, whose victory brought Russia third Fed Cup title on Sunday, made an interesting statement:

"She said she wanted to be our practice partner but if you can't play how then can you practice?" Read more »

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