US advances to Fed Cup final against Italy
John Zenor, The Associated Press, Birmingham, Alabama | Mon, 04/26/2010 10:13 AM
The United States advanced to the Fed Cup final after Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Liezel Huber combined Sunday to secure a semifinal victory over Russia with a 6-3, 6-1 doubles win against Russia's Elena Dementieva and Alla Kudryavtseva.
The Americans will meet defending champion Italy for the second straight year in the final Nov. 6-7. The U.S. has won a record 17 times, the last coming in 2000.
Mattek-Sands beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in the second singles match Sunday to keep the U.S. title hopes alive in the best-of-five contest. Sixth-ranked Dementieva's 7-6 (4), 0-6, 6-3 win over Melanie Oudin had given the Russians a 2-1 lead.
Italy reached its fourth Fed Cup final in five years with a 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic earlier Sunday.
Mattek-Sands became the first American to win consecutive live matches - fourth singles and then doubles - to close out a Fed Cup tie since the best-of-five format was adopted in 1995.
"It's an amazing effort," U.S. captain Mary Joe Fernandez said. "It's always tough to have to play back-to-back, but the good news is Bethanie is used to it. On a weekly basis, she plays singles and doubles. The tough part is her singles match was a very physical match."
Matek-Sands had a half-hour break between the matches to recover.
"I was really pumped," Mattek-Sands said. "I always want to win, whether it's playing singles, doubles or charades. I was ready to go."
Italy advanced to its fourth Fed Cup final in five years with a 5-0 victory over the Czech Republic.
Makarova had replaced a struggling Kudryavtseva in the second reverse singles with Russia trying to secure the win before getting to Huber, the world's No. 1 doubles player.
With only three players making the trip, Russian captain Shamil Tarpischev had to pair Dementieva and Kudryavtseva in the doubles for the first time in their careers - without the benefit of practicing together.
"It was very hard to go into the doubles match without any practice and play against the No. 1 in doubles," Dementieva said. "We were hoping to win the singles match and not go into the doubles."
