Russia, Spain ease into final

Holders Russia will play Spain in the Fed Cup final after both teams made light work of their semi-final opponents yesterday.

They quickly finished off the job they started on Saturday, with Vera Zvonareva beating US player Vania King to give Russia an unassailable 3-0 lead in the tie and Nuria Llagostera Vives overcoming China's Peng Shuai to do the same for Spain.

With their places secured for the Sept. 13-14 final, they played out their remaining dead rubbers. Spain eventually won their tie 4-1 and Russia were 3-1 up with the doubles to play.

The Americans, without former world number ones Serena and Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport, were never going to match the class of a Russian team that featured three top-20 players.

But in yesterday's first reverse singles rubber 115th-ranked King shocked Zvonareva, ranked 101 places above her, by capitalising on the Russian's early nerves to take the first set at Moscow's Luzhniki arena.

Zvonareva, who blamed her jitters on a lack of practice on the red clay surface, soon regained her composure to send Russia into their fourth final in five years with a 4-6 6-3 6-2 win.

Fed Cup debutante Ahsha Rolle made up for Saturday's crushing at the hands of Kuznetsova with a 6-3 6-4 win over Elena Vesnina in the dead reverse singles.

Five-times champions Spain cruised into their first final since 2002, trampling on any notion that the tie would have been closer against a Chinese team who had looked slightly stronger than them on paper.

Holding a comfortable 2-0 lead after Saturday's matches, Spain claimed victory when Vives used her strong forehand to outplay Peng 6-4 6-4 in yesterday's first reverse singles at the Beijing International Tennis Centre.

The weekend's other Fed Cup action involved teams fighting for survival in the top-tier World Group. France kept their place with a 4-1 win over Japan in their play-off.

Last year's Fed Cup runners-up and 2006 winners Italy were also safe after getting the better of Ukraine in their play-off.