Italy beat two-time defending champions Russia in the Fed Cup semifinals and will host the United States in the final in November.

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)

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. Read more »

In the Sunday's Fed Cup final, Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues 5-7 6-3 6-4 to give the Russian team an unassailable 3-0 lead.

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)

Russia is one match away from defeating Spain and defending their Fed Cup title.

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)

Ana Ivanovic recovered from the fever that prevented her from playing on the opening day of the Fed Cup World Group II Play-Off with Croatia in Zagreb. On the second day, the Serb was able to compete and faced Croatia's Nika Ozegovic.

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)