Roberta Vinci recorded the decisive point to send Italy past the Czech Republic and into the final of Fed Cup. Elsewhere, Sam Stosur and Ashleigh Barty led Australia past Switzerland.
They were down 2-0 after Saturday, but Russia won all three matches on Sunday to overcome Slovakia in the Fed Cup semifinals, 3-2. Meanwhile, the other semifinal was left on a cliffhanger.
There was heavy hitting in the World Group play-offs, with Sabine Lisicki blasting an ace to put Germany into next year's World Group and both Williams sisters lifting their games for the US.
Dominika Cibulkova and Daniela Hantuchova gave Slovakia a 2-0 lead on Day 1 of their Fed Cup semifinal tie against Russia. Cibulkova won a tight one against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Italy stormed out to a 2-0 lead against the Czech Republic on Day 1 of the Fed Cup semifinals, with Sara Errani beating Lucie Safarova and Roberta Vinci beating Petra Kvitova - again.
The British Fed Cup squad is in Buenos Aires for their World Group II Play-off tie against Argentina - take a tour of their facilities and much more in their latest batch of videos.
Whose favorite shop is Waterstones? Whose favorite past-time outside of tennis is cleaning? Who seems to really, really like Michael Phelps? Get to know Team GB a little bit better...
This week's Fed Cup semifinals in Moscow and Palermo will see several of the competition's most experienced campaigners in action, including Daniela Hantuchova and Roberta Vinci.
