Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to take Maria Sharapova's Fed Cup Place

February 06, 2011

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was named to play Alize Cornet in the first reverse singles Sunday in the Fed Cup first-round tie between Russia and France.

The 14th-ranked Pavlyuchenkova substituted for three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova, who was originally drawn to play the match.

France stunned highly favored Russia on Saturday, winning both singles matches to take a 2-0 lead in the tie.

Cornet rallied to beat two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Virginie Razzano then downed Sharapova 6-3, 6-4.

Russia is undefeated in eight home ties since losing to France in the semifinals in 2003. Russia has never come back from 2-0 down since the Fed Cup moved to a best-of-five format in 1995.

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