Jelena Jankovic gave Serbia the lead in its Fed Cup semifinal against Russia on Saturday, beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets.
Jankovic won 6-4, 6-3 on an indoor clay court in Moscow.
The Serb overturned a poor record against Pavlyuchenkova, who had won six of their eight previous meetings, and both previous matches on clay.
Pavlyuchenkova broke Jankovic’s serve in the second game of the first set to take an early advantage, but the Serb responded with two breaks of her own and took advantage of the Russian’s error-strewn game, with seven double faults and 27 unforced errors in the first set alone.
Jankovic dominated from early on in a second set where both players struggled with their first serves, as Pavlyuchenkova failed to find a way back into the match.
The indoor clay surface had earlier come in for criticism from Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev, who said it was "crumbling," but Jankovic said this suited her style.
“The court’s not very good, but somehow that suits my game,” she said.
The second of Saturday’s two rubbers pits together two former French Open champions in Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Sunday will see singles matches between Jankovic and Kuznetsova, and Ivanovic and Pavlyuchenkova, before the Russian pair of Maria Kirilenko and Elena Vesnina take on Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Bojana Jovanovski in the final doubles match.
Russia will face either Italy or holders the Czech Republic in November’s final, with the Czechs leading 1-0 in that semifinal.
