 Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 15 Jul 2007 |
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| 15 Jul 2007 - The Stadium at Topnotch, Stowe, USA - Craig Gabriel - USA v RUS | |
| Russia to host Fed Cup Final |
Russia has reached the Final of the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas for the third time in the last four years. Arguably the craftiest captain in tennis’ team events, Shamil Tarpischev, led his nation to a 3-2 victory over USA. It was a semifinal that went right down to the wire with the doubles rubber deciding the weekend’s outcome.
The Russians will take on Italy after they scored a 3-2 victory over France in Castellaneta Marina in southern Italy. Asked about Russia’s chances against the defending champions, Tarpischev said: “We will have a better chance against Italy than we had against the United States.”
Venus Williams gave USA the early edge against Russia. The day before she had played an exciting and tense three setter against Nadia Petrova when Williams came back from a break down in third set to win. This time against Anna Chakvetadze she was sailing with her tennis. She played a near flawless game and overwhelmed the 20-year-old Russian 61 64 in 67 minutes.
Williams faltered at 5-2 but remained calm
The only hiccup for Williams was when she was leading 5-2 in the second. Chakvetadze made a bit of a recovery as Williams admitted to making a few errors which were caused by the wind picking up and the trajectory of the sun. But she remained calm. Her experience kicked in and she was able to close it out.
“Obviously at 5-all she’s gonna feel like she has a chance. In her head she’s thinking she has a chance. In my head, I’m thinking I’m gonna win,” said Venus. “I think my mentality is different because I’m playing a lot more powerful, like I’m stronger than her. So I think my mentality’s different.
“Obviously I did not want it to be 5-all because she’s a great competitor, she had a lot of things going for her, she moves well, moves the ball around well, is a great competitor. I mean, she’s in the top ten. I just really wanted to close it out for 2-1.”
Chakvetadze's 12 double faults aided her downfall
Chakvetadze’s serve deserted her. She had 12 doubles faults and her first serve percentage was down at 48% for the match. She said she had lost confidence in her serve and that started from the second game of the first set. She couldn’t figure out what went wrong.
But she did make that move in the second set and if things had levelled at 5-all, it could have got tight.
I started to play my tennis a little bit late, when I was down a set and 2-5,” said Chakvetadze. “Against top players, if you’re not playing from the beginning, if you’re not showing your best tennis from the beginning, it’s really tough to play.
“Of course it was a very important game when it was 5-4 in the second set and I had a breakpoint. I didn’t use it. Of course Venus, she has so much confidence. She played better than me today. That’s it.”
Nadia Petrova levelled the series in the second reverse singles when she played Meilen Tu . The American captain Zina Garrison had replaced Vania King with Tu and this was the first time Tu had played Fed Cup so there was an element of nerves that entered her game. Even so, Petrova was all over the American with her experience and she closed out the match 61 62 in 62 minutes.
“The pressure was on my shoulders because we were 1-2 down against USA,” said Petrova. “Everything was on the match and it was really hard to play, it was really hard to take it out of my head but I did and I’m very thankful that everything worked today.
“It came down to the experience of playing a lot of years on the tour, playing finals, semifinals against the big names, is also very difficult so it comes with experience.”
In the doubles Petrova and Elena Vesnina scored a 75 76 victory over Lisa Raymond and Williams, who replaced King.
Venus dropped her serve at a crucial time
The Americans had a service break in the second set but Williams dropped her serve and then in the tiebreak the visitors ran away with the match to seal their huge victory.
The match really came down to a couple of points here and there and Williams said she missed some shots that she should not have. Raymond said it is tough not to play with her regular partner but then added that she looks across the court and it’s Venus Williams there and realises she doesn’t have “too shabby a partner”.
“I’ve been around for a while and I know how much Fed Cup means,” said Raymond. “I’m not going to be playing that much longer. I don’t know how many more opportunities I’m going to get to be out there and try and win a match or a tie for the US. It’s pretty tough.”
But while it was sad faces in the American team, the Russian were obviously on cloud nine and 20-year-old Vesnina said this was the best moment of her young career. She said she was so nervous because it was such a big match for her and her country.
“Nadia helped me, she was so confident,” said Vesnina. “Our team was also so confident so this match was unbelievable, just incredible. I don’t have any words to describe this match.”
'It feels fantastic' says Petrova
Petrova added: “I’m very happy that I did it because I was very disappointed after losing to Venus when I had everything in my hands and then I broke down, I couldn’t handle the nerves and the pressure. Today I got to do everything and get back to my team, make it up to them. I did it today. It just feels great. It feels fantastic.”
It’s moments like this, playing for your nation in an event like Fed Cup that can start to really develop a career.
Related Links on other websites
> Information from USTA
> Information from RTF
Related Links on Fedcup.com
> Tie Information
>Scorecards and stats from this tie
>Williams defies Petrova to keep USA in hunt
>King gets the nod
Related audio
 Interview with Venus Williams (USA)
Interview with Anna Chakvetadze (RUS)
Interview with Nadia Petrova (RUS)
Interview with Meilen Tu (USA)
Interview with Lisa Raymond and Venus Williams (USA)
Interview with Captain Zina Garrison (USA)
Interview with Nadia Petrova and Elena Vesnina (RUS)
 
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