Sunday 19 April 2015 11:47, UK
Lucie Safarova and Petra Kvitova gave Fed Cup holders the Czech Republic a 2-0 lead over France in the World Group semi-finals in Ostrava.
World No 13 Safarova took an hour and 58 minutes to beat 29th-ranked Caroline Garcia 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-1, while world No 4 Kvitova saw off 58th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 21 minutes to take the Czechs to within a point of the finals.
The two lefties led their country to Fed Cup titles in 2011, 2012 and 2014, while France are playing their first semi-final since 2007.
Safarova and Garcia held serve until the 10th game of set one when an aggressive Garcia broke her rival and closed out the set 6-4.
The second set went the same way but 21-year-old Garcia squandered five match points before the game changed dramatically.
Safarova took the set in a tie-break after sweeping Garcia 7-1 and never looked back, breezing past the youngster 6-1 in the third set.
Safarova was pleased with her performance in a topsy-turvy match and said: "It was pretty wild, wasn't it?
"Of course I was nervous... but I kept hoping, in tennis it's not over until it's over, you can always come back, so I played more aggressively and hoped it would turn out differently in the end."
Meanwhile, Garcia was left shell shocked by the defeat.
"I think this has never happened to me before," she said. "If I lost, it's because I made mistakes and I need to improve."
In the second rubber, Kvitova, coming back after a month-long sabbatical, went through with a break in the first set and two in the second.
In Sunday's reverse singles, Kvitova is set to face Garcia and Safarova will take on Mladenovic, but the captains may decide to change the teams.
Czechs Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova are schedulued to take on Alize Cornet and Pauline Parmentier in the doubles.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova battled back from a set down to defeat Sabine Lisicki as Russia took a comfortable 2-0 lead over Germany in the other semi-final in Sochi.
Svetlana Kuznetsova earlier beat Julia Goerges 6-4 6-4 on the red clay court of Adler Arena as four-time champions Russia closed in on the final.
The 23-year-old Pavlyuchenkova won 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 in two hours 28 minutes to record her second win over Lisicki, who is 19th in the WTA rankings, in as many meetings.
"It was a very hard match," Pavlyuchenkova said. "I feel worn out but I'm really happy to give my team this win today.
"After winning the second set in the tiebreak I was stoked and it helped me to start the deciding set pretty well."
Kuznetsova, currently 24th in the WTA rankings, became Russia's most successful player in Fed Cup history with her 27th win.
"It was a very nervous match as we both wanted to show our best tennis today," Kuznetsova said.
"The key moment of the match was in the middle of the second set when Julia broke back to level. Luckily I managed to gather my strength to win the first point."
