Wednesday,
April 25,
Italy to face France in Fed Femme Cup
Tennis Semi Finals, and Defend its Chanpionship
The
ANNOTICO Report
Italian number
one, Tathiana Garbin ranked #32 overcame a shaky
start to beat late stand-in Zhang Shuai 2-6 6-2 6-4,
ranked at #212 a tougher opponent than expected.Zhang
was standing in for Peng Shuai,
who aggravated a hamstring injury on Saturday. Peng
was
Mara Santangelo, brought into the squad after Francesca Schiavone suffered an abdominal strain, replaced Pennetta in the reverse singles, beating Sun Tiantian 6-4 6-2, and then teamed up with Roberta Vinci to
win the doubles against Olympic gold medallist Sun
and her compatriot Sun Sheng-nan.
Reuters
ByClareFallon
Sun Apr 22, 200 7
LONDON (Reuters)
- Defending champions Italy and France set up a Fed Cup last-four meeting with
sweeping victories in their quarter-finals on Sunday.
They were joined
in the last four by
Italy beat world
group debutantes China 5-0, thanks primarily to Tathiana
Garbin who overcame a shaky start to beat late stand-in Zhang Shuai 2-6 6-2 6-4.
The Italian
number one, who had beaten Sun Tiantian 6-4 2-6 6-3
in the opening singles on Saturday, found Zhang, ranked 189 places below her in
the world at 212, a tougher opponent than expected.
Zhang was
standing in for Peng Shuai,
who aggravated a hamstring injury on Saturday and had to retire from her rubber
against Flavia Pennetta,
giving the Italian a 0-6 7-5 3-0 win.
Peng was
Mara Santangelo, brought into the squad after Francesca Schiavone suffered an abdominal strain, replaced Pennetta in the reverse singles, beating Sun Tiantian 6-4 6-2, and then teamed up with Roberta Vinci to
win the doubles against Olympic gold medallist Sun
and her compatriot Sun Sheng-nan.
MAURESMO OUT
With French
number one Amelie Mauresmo
recovering from appendicitis, Tatiana Golovin
admirably filled her shoes, beating Japan's Ai Sugiyama 7-6 6-0 on Sunday as
France headed towards a 5-0 win to earn a place in the July 14-15 semi-final in
Italy.
Golovin, who beat Akiko Morigami 6-2 6-4 on Saturday, struggled in the first set
against Sugiyama, losing her serve in the first game and breaking back only
when the Japanese number one served for the set at 5-4.
The Frenchwoman
won the tiebreak 7-3 and ran away with the second set as Sugiyama, a former
top-10 player now ranked 27, crumbled.
"The first
set was very tense. I made a lot of errors but I won it because I was stronger
mentally," said the 19-year-old Golovin, who
climbed to 18th place in the rankings after winning her first WTA tournament in
Amelia Island earlier this month.
Nathalie Dechy had beaten Sugiyama 7-5 6-1 on Saturday and Virginie Razzano took her team
mate's place in the final reverse singles to beat Morigami
7-6 1-6 6-2.
In Moscow, world
number five Svetlana Kuznetsova thrashed Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3 4-6
6-0 in the first reverse singles to clinch the decisive point for Russia, the
2004 and 2005 champions.
After losing the
second set, former U.S. Open champion Kuznetsova took
complete control in the third, hammering the Spanish number one into submission
after one hour 42 minutes.
In the final set,
Medina Garrigues, who lost in straight sets to Nadia Petrova in Saturday's opener, took time out for treatment
on her back and was unable to put up any resistance to Kuznetsova
when she returned.
Anna Chakvetadze, playing in place of world number nine Petrova, beat Nuria Llagostera Vives 3-6 7-6 6-2
before Petrova and Elena Vesnina
dismissed Lourdes Dominguez Lino and Laura Pous Tio 6-1 4-6 6-2 in doubles to compete the whitewash.
The win kept captain Shamil Tarpishchev
on course for a unique double as he can win both the Fed and Davis Cups in the
same year after guiding the Russian men to the last four of their competition.
AMERICANS CRUISE
In
Venus Williams
then cruised to a 6-1 6-2 victory over Yanine Wickmayer before teenager King teamed up with Lisa Raymond
to complete a 5-0 whitewash with a 6-1 6-2 doubles triumph against Tamaryn Hendler and Caroline Maes in the final rubber.
In an unexpected
turn of events, it was the 83rd-ranked King who was handed the job of clinching
the tie.
The 18-year-old
was called into the singles in place of Serena Williams, who was sidelined with
an inflammation of her right knee earlier in the day.
The Williams
sister had recorded singles victories on Saturday to set the
"It's going
to be a very tough match and they have a very strong bench with a lot of
players they can pick from,"
"All of us
were really looking forward to playing
http://www.reuters.com/article/
wtMostRead/idUSL2215662620070423
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