LONDON – The United States and Italy reached the Fed Cup tennis final on Sunday, with the Americans saving a match point in the decisive match of the best-of-five series and the Italians eliminating defending champion Russia.
The Americans, who have won a record 17 Fed Cup titles but none since 2000, beat the Czech Republic 3-2 to reach their first final since 2003. Liezel Huber and Bethanie Mattek-Sands saved a match point before defeating Iveta Benesova and Kveta Peschke 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
Francesca Schiavone earned the winning point for Italy, defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-2 before the Italian doubles team closed out the 4-1 victory. The Russians had won four of the last five Fed Cup titles, with Italy taking the other title in 2006.
The 2009 final, which will be in Italy, is set for Nov. 7-8.
The Czech doubles team broke Mattek-Sands’ serve twice in the first set, and then broke Huber twice in the second to lead 3-1. The Americans, however, saved a match point at 5-2 and fought back to level the set at 5-5 before forcing the tiebreaker.
“At the end, we were lucky,” Huber said. “We took our chances.”
Nadal wins title
BARCELONA, Spain – Rafael Nadal won his fifth straight Barcelona Open title on Sunday, beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 7-5.
Top-ranked Nadal exploited Ferrer’s inconsistent service game to take the first set and then overcame his own erratic play in the second set to win the Godo trophy at Ferrer’s expense for the second straight year.
Nadal was coming off a record fifth straight Monte Carlos Masters title and improved to 24-1 in clay court finals.