Russia lead China 2-0 in Fed Cup Tennis Play-off

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, July 20, 2002

Russia lead China 2-0 in Fed Cup Tennis Play-off

Russia made no sweat to lead China 2-0 in a Federation Cup World Group play-off match at the Beijing International Tennis Center on Saturday.

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Russia made no sweat to lead China 2-0 in a Federation Cup World Group play-off match at the Beijing International Tennis Center on Saturday.

Though Chinese Zheng Jie, ranked 212nd in the world, had a goodstart with an early 2-2 draw with her Russian opponent Tatiana Panova in the first set, 21st-ranked Panova broke her service serveral times in the rest of the match to win 6-3, 6-1 within 50 minutes.

Elena Dementieva, ranked 13th in the world, make quite a few double faults in the service but she was still a class above her Chinese opponent Sun Tiantian, winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-3.

Dementieva, U.S Open semi-finalist in 2000 and silver medalist at the Sydney Olympic Games, was once 3-1 down in the second set. But she never giave any more chances to the 262nd-ranked Sun, withforehand and backhand strikes which kept Sun running all over the court.

"I made some mistakes in service due to shoulder injury which has hampered me for years. But it is not dangerous," the 21-year-old Russian said after the match.

"Sun is a good and fast player. She was swift on the court," Dementieva added.

The doubles and reversed singles will be played on Sunday.

The winners of the play-off will enter the World Group next year while the losers will compete in the Asia-Atlantic zone qualifying round.

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