Russia take 2-1 lead in Fed Cup semi-final

Elena Dementieva beat Melanie Oudin to give Russia a 2-1 lead over the US in their Fed Cup semi-final in Birmingham, Alabama. Both players won their singles on Saturday to leave the tie evenly poised at 1-1 ahead of the reverse singles and the doubles.

This was the third time these two players had met with one win each in their previous match-ups. Neither player was able to hold serve for the first 10 games of the match. The first set went to a tie-break which Russia's world number six won after winning the last four points.

To the delight of the home crowd, Oudin then raced through the second set, holding her serve three times and breaking her opponent three times to take it 6-0.

But although Dementieva was again broken in the third game of the final set to trail 1-2, she won the next four games before clinching the win when Oudin hit a forehand long. So now Bethanie Mattek-Sands had to beat Ekaterina Makarova in the second singles to keep US hopes alive and take the tie into the final doubles.