By Pritha SarkarLONDON, Feb 8 – Italy silenced an angry French
team to set up a Fed Cup semi-final with champions Russia on
Sunday.Russia completed a 5-0 whitewash of an understrength China
while Czech Republic beat Spain 4-1 to give them a semi-final
place against either the United States or Argentina in April.Bad feeling between France and Italy continued to simmer on
Sunday but it did not stop Italy from romping to an unbeatable
4-0 lead in the first-round tie.A day after the French asked for Flavia Pennetta’s win over
Amelie Mauresmo to be overturned, the Italian kept her cool to
demolish a tearful Alize Cornet 6-2 6-2 in Orleans, France.Sara Errani kept up the winning streak by defeating Mauresmo
6-3 6-4.Cornet, who struggled to find her service rhythm, burst into
tears after being broken for the fifth time in the match.
was given a point penalty deep in the second set when she
contested a Pennetta shot while the point was being played.Pennetta, who was given a verbal warning and fined $2,000 on
Saturday for making an obscene gesture towards the umpire during
her match against Mauresmo, ignored the disruption and wrapped
up victory in 78 minutes.On Saturday, France said Pennetta should have been
disqualified for showing her middle finger to the umpire but the
host team’s protest was not heard.EMPHATIC WINIn Moscow, Russia slammed the door on China, who were
missing injured number one Zheng Jie.Anna Chakvetadze thrashed Yan Zi 6-1 6-2 before Alisa
Kleybanova produced an even more emphatic 6-1 6-1 win over Sun
Tian-tian.”We would have preferred to play France because we (would)
play in Moscow…but most likely we’ll play Italy on clay, which
will be tough for the Russians,” Chakvetadze told reporters.
Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova completed the rout
for Russia, who are looking to win their fifth title in six
years, with a 1-6 6-4 6-4 doubles triumph over Sun and Yan.The Czechs reached the Fed Cup semi-finals for the first
time since 1997 but faced a wait to know the identity of their
and Argentina were level at 1-1 in their tie
in Arizona.Five-times champions Spain had been expected to roll over
the Czechs as they had won both of the previous meetings between
the teams but the 2008 finalists came unstuck in Brno.With the tie poised at 1-1 after the opening day’s singles,
the Czechs strolled to victory in both of Sunday’s reverse
rubbers and the doubles.Lucie Safarova completed a miserable weekend for world
number 30 Carla Suarez Navarro with a 6-4 6-3 win while Petra
Kvitova secured the winning point by defeating Nuria Llagostera
Vives 6-4 7-5.Australian Open giant-killer Suarez Navarro, who stormed to
the last eight at Melbourne Park after claiming the scalp of
Venus Williams en route, was hopelessly outclassed in both of
her singles outings against the Czechs.”The city is different, the play is different, so it is not
the same here as in Australia,” the Spaniard told Czech
Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=tennis&id=3892706
