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Holders Italy take control in Fed Cup final

Holders Italy closed in on a third Fed Cup title in five years after taking a commanding 2-0 lead over the United States in the opening singles of the best-of-five match final on Saturday.

Italy’s top player Francesca Schiavone gave the visitors a flying start by brushing aside American teenager Coco Vandeweghe 6-2 6-4 in one hour 23 minutes at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Her compatriot Flavia Pennetta then held off a first-set fightback by American number one Bethanie Mattek-Sands before winning a tense battle 7-6 6-2.

In Sunday’s reverse singles, Mattek-Sands is set to face Schiavone while Vandeweghe meets Pennetta before Americans Liezel Huber and Melanie Oudin play Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the concluding doubles.

However US captain Mary Joe Fernandez said her team’s lineup could change on Sunday and Mattek-Sands appeared to be suffering from cramps in her right calf in her opening match.

Schiavone, the French Open champion and world number seven, had been widely expected to crush Vandeweghe in the first singles out, and she duly delivered after breaking her opponent twice in each set.

“It was a good match for me,” Schiavone told reporters after becoming the most successful Italian ever at the Fed Cup with a win-loss record of 24-14. “I started really well, particularly the first set, and then I went a little bit down.

“But I played a solid game. I was aggressive. It was not easy today for her but I think she can play good tennis because she’s very strong, very powerful.”

Vandeweghe, making her Fed Cup debut after being chosen ahead of the higher-ranked and more experienced Oudin, made a deceptively bright start after opting to serve first.

Roared on by a sparse crowd, she unleashed an ace followed by a strong first serve to lead the opening game 30-0 but later succumbed to nerves when she double-faulted and was broken.

The big-hitting American was again broken in the fifth, hitting a forehand long after a protracted baseline rally, before Schiavone won the opening set in 34 minutes.

Breaking back

The Italian broke her opponent in the first game of the second when a Vandeweghe forehand sailed wide but the American, ranked a lowly 114^th, did well to break back in the eighth.

However Vandeweghe immediately lost serve in the ninth and Schiavone, leading 5-4, coolly served out to love, sealing victory when the American netted a backhand service return.

The feisty Italian pumped her left fist in celebration before acknowledging her own supporters in the crowd by clapping her left hand on her racket strings.

In the second match, Pennetta broke Mattek-Sands three times to race into a 5-1 lead before the American fought back to take an error-littered opening set into a tiebreak.

The Italian world number 23 then regained control, claiming the tiebreak 7-4 when the 58^th-ranked American hit a forehand service return wide.

Further breaks of serves were traded in the fourth and fifth game of the second set before Pennetta broke Mattek-Sands twice more to wrap up victory in two hours.

“I’m really happy today because it was not easy,” Pennetta said after converting her second match point with a pinpoint backhand service return winner down the line.

“I didn’t play my best tennis, but I was running and running and fighting and trying to do my best all the time. I’m just tired now.”

The Italians are heavy favourites to win this year’s title against an under-strength US team deprived of their top two players, Serena and Venus Williams, because of injury.

While the Americans lead all nations with 17 Fed Cup titles, they have not triumphed since 2000 when they crushed Spain 5-0 the last time the final was held on US soil.

Italy whitewashed the US 4-0 in last year’s final in Reggio Calabria.