Publications
Partners
Sochi - Germany's Angelique Kerber beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in straight sets on Sunday to level the score in their Fed Cup World Group semi-final tie at 2-2.
Kerber, who is currently 14th in the world, won 6-1, 6-0 in 52 minutes to level her head-to-head record with Russia's 23-year-old Pavlyuchenkova at three all.
The 27-year-old Kerber, winner of Charlestone WTA event last week, looked in command from the start, breaking Pavlyuchenkova serve twice to take the opening set in just 25 minutes before starting the second with yet another.
Later in the second the left-handed German broke twice again to take the set at love and the match sending the tie into the decisive fifth rubber.
Earlier on Sunday Andrea Petkovic reduced the arrears in the match with Russia with a straight-set victory 6-2, 6-1 over Svetlana Kuznetsova.
"Yesterday's rest really played a big role for me," Petkovic said.
"I don't know how I would play yesterday, but I know that two days of play for me is not possible.
"The score tells nothing about this match. Some games in the first set were very close. Both of us showed very good clay court tennis during the first set."
The 27-year-old Petkovic, who is currently 11th in the WTA rankings, started confidently, breaking her opponent's serve on three occasions to take the opening set in 41 minutes, while Kuznetsova, 29, broke back only once.
In the second Petkovic underlined her supremacy at the red clay court of Sochi's Adler Arena as she produced two more breaks to put her team back on the track.
"I failed to adjust myself completely for the clay courts, that's the main reason of my defeat today," Kuznetsova said.
In Sunday's last rubber Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva, a replacement for injured Maria Sharapova, will play Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic in the doubles.
On Saturday Kuznetsova beat Goerges 6-4, 6-4 to put Russia into the lead, while Pavlyuchenkova battled back from a set down to defeat Sabine Lisicki to give her country a comfortable 2-0 lead.
In the final the winner of the tie will face the Czech Republic, who had clinched an unassailable 3-0 lead over France in the other semi-final.
