Americas lead Russia 2-1 in Hong Kong team event

The Americas took a 2-1 lead in the final of the Hong Kong World Team Challenge today, leaving team captain Venus Williams the chance to wrap up the tie in her clash against Vera Zvonareva.

The two teams were locked at 1-1 overnight but Gisela Dulko edged the Americas ahead in the best-of-five gold group final with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Anna Chakvetadze.

Both players struggled on serve at the start of the match, with five straight breaks, before the 18th-ranked Chakvetadze held to establish a 4-2 lead and went on to take the opener.

The second set followed a similar pattern, with four breaks of serve in a row to leave the scores at 3-3. A nervous Dulko, ranked 49, missed a simple overhead on her second set point but was reprieved when Chakvetadze missed a straightforward backhand volley on the following point.

The decider went with serve until the ninth game, when a deft volley by Dulko at the net gave her the crucial break and she served out for victory.

Wimbledon champion Williams is due to take on World No 7 Zvonareva later today, which will be followed by a doubles clash featuring Williams and Coco Vandeweghe against Chakvetadze and Alexandra Panova.

On Friday, Williams beat Chakvetadze 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 to give the Americas the lead but Russia hit back through Zvonareva, who beat Gisela Dulko 6-4, 0-6, 6-3.

Asia-Pacific won the silver group final against Europe, featuring the teams that lost their semi-final clashes earlier in the week.