Nov 21: France's Mary Pierce beat Russian Vera Zvonareva in three sets to take her country through to a Fed Cup final against USA this weekend.
Pierce marked her return to the competition by seeing off Zvonareva 6-4 3-6 6-3 in one-hour and 44 minutes.
The victory gave France an unassailable 3-1 lead in the semi-final.
Anastasia Myskina and Nadia Petrova beat Emilie Loit and Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-3 1-6 6-3 in the closing doubles to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Pierce, playing in the Fed Cup for the first time since France's victory against the Netherlands in 1997, lost her opening match against Anastasia Myskina on Wednesday.
But the Montreal-born player bounced back to put France into the final against the USA - who have won every one of their previous 10 Fed Cup meetings.
Pierce credited team captain Guy Forget for her victory.
"At the end of the match Guy told me to be more aggressive and just go for my shots," she said.
"For some reason I wasn't aggressive enough and he reminded me of that." Earlier Amelie Mauresmo had secured a superb 6-7 6-3 6-4 win over Myskina of Russia in the first of the reverse singles.
Myskina looked in control after taking a tight first set and immediately breaking serve in the second, but Mauresmo fought back for a famous win.
"I was trying to play very aggressive and took every opportunity to come forward," said Mauresmo.
"Anastasia also played a hard three-set match against Mary (Pierce) yesterday and I was a bit fresher because (Vera) Zvonareva didn't really give me any trouble, and I think that was the difference at the end of the third set."
The United States completed a 4-1 win over Belgium in Moscow.
Lisa Raymond clinched victory in the semi-finals with a 6-2 6-1 win over Elke Clijsters, younger sister of Kim.
France lead Russia 2-1 in the second semi-final after Amelie Mauresmo beat Anastasia Myskina in game three.
Martina Navratilova extended her unbeaten streak Fed Cup run to 38 matches with victory in the doubles for the USA.
Navratilova teamed up with Raymond to beat Clijsters and Caroline Maes 6-1 6-4. "It's pretty amazing to be on a court with her," said Raymond.
"It's one thing to represent your country, but to do it with Martina is something else." Els Callens beat Meghann Shaughnessy 6-3 7-6 in the first match Thursday to get Belgium back to 2-1.
But the Belgians, missing world numbers one and two Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, could not build on the win.
Bureau Report