Defending champions Russia wrapped up a 5-0 thrashing of China on Sunday to book a Fed Cup semi-final against Italy in a repeat of the 2007 final after the Italians dispatched France in Orleans.
The Russians have dominated the tournament in recent years and on current form look set for their fifth title in the past six years after Anna Chakvetadze motored past Yan Zi 6-1, 6-2 for the decisive third point before debutant teen Alisa Kleibanova crushed Sun Tian-Tian 6-1, 6-1.
Star pair Elena Dementieva, the Beijing Olympic champion, and Svetlana Kuznetsova completed the whitewash with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 doubles success over Yan and Sun.
PHOTO: EPA
Chinese skipper Zhang Qi strove to lift a depleted squad — missing the injured Zheng Jie as well as Li Na — but was unable to prevent Russia repeating their 5-0 romp in the countries’ only previous meeting in 2002.
Italy, meanwhile, reached their third semi-final in four years after Flavia Pennetta obliterated Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-2.
France, champions in 2003, slumped to their third opening round loss since 2005 after Pennetta saw off former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo on Saturday in a bad-tempered three-setter.
The Czech Republic also moved into the semis for the first time in 12 years after beating fellow five-time champions Spain 4-1.
Petra Kvitova saw off Nuria Llagostera 6-4, 7-5 and Lucie Safarova moved past Carla Suarez 6-4, 6-3 after the teams had ended the first day all square.
The Czechs can now look forward to a home encounter with the US, who defeated Argentina 3-2.
The US, playing without the superstar Williams sisters, also got a key contribution from a teenager, as 17-year-old Melanie Oudin shrugged off a 30-minute rain delay and rallied from a set down to defeat Argentina’s Betina Jozami 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 and force a deciding doubles match in Surprise, Arizona.
Julie Ditty and Liezel Huber then cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Gisela Dulko and Jozami.
Earlier on Sunday, Dulko defeated US veteran Jill Craybas, 6-1, 6-3, to give the Argentinians a 2-1 advantage.
The match was the second, which was claimed by Dulko, who defeated Oudin on Saturday — when Craybas defeated Jozami.
Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic gave Serbia an unassailable lead over Japan to send Serbia into the World Group play-offs for the first time following a 6-3, 6-2 win over veteran Ai Sugiyama before Ana Ivanovic beat Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-2.
Japan won the dead rubber doubles to make the final result 4-1 for Serbia, which had taken control on Saturday, when French Open champion and world No. 8 Ivanovic showed glimpses of her form last year to defeat Sugiyama 6-4, 6-4, before Jankovic destroyed 18-year-old Morita 6-1, 6-0.
Slovakia, Germany and Ukraine also won their World Group II ties.
■MOVISTAR OPEN
AP, VINA DEL MAR, CHILE
Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile defeated Argentina’s Jose Acasuso 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday to claim his fourth Movistar Open title.
After a smooth first set for Gonzalez, fourth-seeded Acasuso upped the tempo in the second.
With the scores level at 3-3, defending champion Gonzalez broke Acasuso’s serve and then took advantage of a double fault by the Argentine to move ahead 5-3. Gonzalez then held his serve to win the match.
■SA TENNIS OPEN
AFP, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his third ATP title on Sunday with a 6-4, 7-6 triumph over fellow Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in a thrilling SA Tennis Open final.
The 23-year-old Le Mans-born Tsonga won in Bangkok and Paris last year and succeeded in the revived South African tournament without dropping a single set in five matches.
■ZAGREB INDOORS
AFP, ZAGREB
Croatia’s Marin Cilic won the ATP Zagreb tournament with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of his countryman Mario Ancic on Sunday.
Second-seeded Cilic, who did not lose a set the entire week, dominated as Ancic simply did not have an answer to his forehand.
Not even a tense tete-a-tete in the gold-medal game on Friday could spoil the vibe at Paris’ biggest beach party. Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Brazil’s Ana Patricia got into a shouting match on either side of the net in the tiebreaking third set of the beach volleyball final of the Paris Olympics. The referee tried to keep the peace, but it was the Eiffel Tower Stadium DJ who cooled tempers on the sand by playing John Lennon’s Imagine over the PA system. The players laughed and clapped, the crowd applauded and sang along, Wilkerson was shown a yellow card and the top-ranked Brazilians
China yesterday celebrated one of its best Olympic performances, while some supporters declared China the true winners, if medals won by Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan were included. “We are number one out of sovereign countries,” read one comment with more than 1,300 likes on Sina Weibo. Many similar posts included images of an adjusted medal table with medals won by Hong Kong and Taiwan added to the Chinese total. Since Taiwan’s Olympic debut in 1956, its athletes have competed as “Formosa,” “Taiwan,” “the Republic of China,” and since 1984 as “Chinese Taipei.” Hong Kong competes separately from China. Team China racked up 40 gold
Taiwan’s streak of winning gold medals in weightlifting at the Olympic Games going back to 2008 on Friday came to an end as its weightlifter Chen Wen-huei placed sixth in the women’s 71kg final in Paris. Chen, who won bronze in the 64kg division in her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, finished the event with a total of 236kg, successfully lifting the bar twice — 103kg in the snatch and 133kg in the clean and jerk. She attempted 140kg in her last clean and jerk after failing to clean 139kg on her second attempt. However, she was unable to stabilize the
Olympic Refugee Team breaker Manizha Talash, who fled Afghanistan to live in Spain, was disqualified from the breaking competition after she wore a cape saying “Free Afghan Women,” the World DanceSport Federation told reporters yesterday. B-girl Talash, 21, unveiled the blue top bearing the slogan on Friday just before the first duel of the whole competition, against India Sardjoe of the Netherlands. “Refugee athlete B-girl Talash ... was disqualified for displaying a political slogan on her attire in violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter,” the association said in a statement. That rule states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious