Francesca Schiavone of Italy battled past Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6,4-6,6-2 on sunday to book Italy's place into the Fed Cup final.

Italy got the 2-0 lead against Russia in the opening day after Flavia Pennetta defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-4, 6-0 and Francesca Schiavone prevailed against Svetlana Kuznetsova 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.

On the second day,  Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Flavia Pennetta 6-0, 6-3 to keep Russia hope afloat. But Schiavone ended defending champion Russia chance to make it to final  and sets up Fed Cup title clash with U.S, who reached the final for the first time with a 3-2 victory over Czech Republic.

In the opening day Kveta Peschke of Czech Republic defeated Mattek-Sands of U.S 6-3, 7-6(2). American Alexa Glatch levelled the tie score at 1-1 after she edged past Iveta Benesova 6-2 6-1.

In the first reverse singles match of the second day, Lucie Safarova eased past Bethanie Mattek-Sands of U.S 6-3, 6-1. Alexa Glatch once again rescued U.S and defeated Petra Kvitova 6-2 6-1.

In the decisive rubber, American pair Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Liezel Huber overcame a match point to win the match 2-6 7-6(1) 6-1 against Czech pair Kveta Peschke and Iveta Benesova and clinched the tie in favour of U.S . 

After the match Huber admired her partner efforts and said “I knew Bethanie could do it,” 

“Bethanie had a tough loss earlier today and I knew if there was going to be somebody out there to bring her up it would be me. I just kept plugging away and then at the end it was Bethanie who was carrying me so it was so much fun.”