The Russian squad, led by coach Shamil Tarpishchev, overwhelmed the Spanish team 4-1 over the weekend in the finals of the Fed Cup, the leading women's team tennis competition and the equivalent of the men's Davis Cup.
The Russian champions confidently began their title defense on Saturday with two straight sets victories as Vera Zvonareva beat French Open doubles champion, Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-3, 6-4 followed by Kuznetsova, who crushed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-3.
On Sunday Spain were in need of a miracle and for a short-time Kuznetsova lost her concentration and the first set in her single match against Garrigues, but managed to take the next two sets to win the rubber 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to dash the hopes of the home crowd.
"I wasn't playing my best, but it's very important for me to win this last point for my team," the official WTA website quoted Kuznetsova as saying after the game. "We've won it four of the last five years, so we're showing that Russia is really on top."
And doubles pairing Yelena Vesnina and Yekaterina Makaraova also dominated their match beating Carla Suarez Navarro and Nuria Llagostera Vives in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.
Russia have won the Fed Cup trophy four out of the last five tournaments (2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008). The country is currently ranked fifth in terms of total Fed Cup trophies after the United States with 17 titles, Australia (7 titles), Spain and the Czech Republic (5 each).
