TENNIS in DEPTH.

The United States reached the Fed Cup final for the first time since 2003, beating the Czech Republic 3-2 on Sunday with Liezel Huber and Bethanie-Mattek-Sands winning the decisive doubles match.

Huber and Mattek-Sands beat Iveta Benesova and Kveta Peschke 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1 on the indoor hard court in Rondo Arena.

The Americans will play in the Nov. 7-8 final against Italy, which beat defending champion Russia.

Earlier, American teenager Alexa Glatch kept the United States in the best-of-five series by beating Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-1. In the first reverse singles match of the day, Lucie Safarona defeated Mattek-Sands 6-3, 6-1.

The Czech team broke Mattek-Sands’ serve twice in the first set of the doubles, and then broke Huber twice in the second to lead 3-1. The Americans, however, saved a match point at 5-2 and fought back to level the set at 5-5 before forcing the tiebreaker.

In the final set, Benesova was broken in the second game and sixth game before Huber served out the match, converting the second match point.

The 32-year-old Huber, who previously competed for South Africa, was playing for the United States for the third time. She won her doubles matches against Russia and Argentina.

Glatch, at 19 playing in the Fed Cup for the first time, won her second singles match of the weekend by beating Petra Kvitova 6-2, 6-1.

Glatch broke Kvitova twice in the opening set to lead 5-1 and converted her first set point when the Czech double-faulted in the eighth game. Glatch, ranked 114th, continued to dominate in the second set, breaking her 48th-ranked opponent in the second and fourth games before serving out the match.

“This has been unbelievable,” Glatch said. “I played well overall. I really don’t know how I’m doing it.”

Glatch said her two Fed Cup wins were “definitely the most important” in her career.

“This is one of the few times in my life I’m playing on a team,” she said. “It beats anything I’ve done in tennis before.”

I just hope that Mary Joe Fernandez and the USA Fed cup committee sticks with this successful team, and any suggestion that the Williams sisters be included in the final to ensure a victory is met with a resounding response in the negative.

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