Tennis: Stosur’s win seals Australia’s promotion

STUTTGART: Australia have won promotion to the Fed Cup World Group after US Open winner Samantha Stosur gave her team an unassailable 3-0 lead over Germany yesterday in their play-off tie. Stosur, ranked fifth in the world, needed only 74 minutes to see off Germany’s Andrea Petkovic, ranked 11th, for a 6-4, 6-1 victory in the third singles rubber which settled the promotion/relegation tie. Meanwhile, Serena Williams propelled the US back into the Fed Cup top flight with a straight-sets 6-3, 6-2 win over Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko in a World Group play-off tie in Kiev and Ana Ivanovic battled back from a set down to defeat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and put Serbia back ahead at 2-1 in the semi-final with Russia.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2012.