DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | September 27, 2024

Published 04 Nov, 2013 07:46am

Italy cruise to fourth Fed Cup title

CAGLIARI (Italy), Nov 3: Sara Errani romped to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Alisa Kleybanova to spur Italy to their third Fed Cup title in five years with a 4-0 win over Russia on Sunday.

A second-string Russian side were always likely to struggle against a team featuring Grand Slam doubles champions Errani and Roberta Vinci.

Errani showed her class and experience as she won both her singles rubbers and wrapped up the title for Italy with two matches to spare.

With Italy already crowned champions, the teams decided to skip the fourth singles rubber before Karin Knapp and Flavia Pennetta completed the whitewash with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-4 (champions tiebreak) win over Margarita Gasparyan and Irina Khromacheva.

Italy are now level with Russia with four Fed Cup titles, just one behind Spain, but 13 behind the United States.

Vinci and Errani had given Italy a 2-0 lead on Saturday with victories over Alexandra Panova and Khromachava respectively.

Vinci won a three hour, 13 minute marathon against Panova, the world number 136 making her debut in the tournament, 5-7, 7-5, 8-6 before Errani breezed past teenager Irina Khromachava 6-1, 6-4.—Agencies

Read Comments

Govt looks to scrap non-filer category Next Story