China defeated Uzbekistan 2-1 in the Asian and Pacific zone Fed Cup tennis qualifying tournamen there Saturday evening, avoiding relegation in the last moment.

Yang Shujing, who suffered diarrhea on Thursday, had a slow start and lost the opening set 6-3 to 15-year-old Vlada Ekshibarova. However, the Chinese rallied back with her strong baseline attacks and forced her peer to commit unforced errors time and again, and took the following sets 6-3 and 6-0.

In the second match, Hao Jie was unable to stop Ivanna Isroilova as the Uzbekistanian remained unbeaten in the tournament,winning 6-0 and 6-3 for a decisive doubles.

From 5-all, the Chinese pair of Yang Shujing and Ding Ying tooktwo points in a row and scored a 7-5 and 6-3 victory over Ivanna Isroilova and Akgul Amanmuradova.

The decider helped China remain in the tournament, while Uzbekistan was relegated.

Chinese coach Lin Zhi expressed his satisfaction, saying that "both teams have played to their best as the match will decide which team to be relegated. And our players survived eventually despite their health conditions and the big serves of their opponents."

Source: Xinhua