Russia won their third Fed Cup title in four years with the victory over last year’s surprising champions Italy in the final at Moscow’s Luzhniki arena. On Sunday, Svetlana Kuznetsova saved two match points in a second-set tiebreaker before beating Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 4-6 7-6 7-5 in the first reverse singles and giving the home team an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Italy.
Heavy favorites Russia had enjoyed a 2-0 lead after day one when Anna Chakvetadze beat Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, and Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Mara Santangelo 6-1 6-2.
In the picture you can see Maria Sharapova celebrating with the Russian team, but she didn’t participate in the competition, her role was just that of a supporter. Actually, Sharapova has never played in the Fed Cup, and she was heavily criticized for that.
Here you can see the list of all Fed Cup champions since 1963.
