Petkovic fires Germany into Fed Cup semis

Germany’s Andrea Petkovic (C, background) celebrates with teammates (R-L) Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki and Julia Goerges after Petkovic defeated Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova in the FedCup yesterday.AFP/LondonAndrea Petkovic endured another gruelling three-set marathon to seal Germany’s 3-1 win over Australia yesterday and put the hosts in the Fed Cup semi-finals. Germany, the 2014 finalists, will face Russia in the semi-finals on April 18-19 after Petkovic again dug deep to seal a 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 win over Jarmila Gajdosova with the third set taking nearly an hour. It was the second time in 24 hours Petkovic was carried to victory by the vocal 4,000-strong crowd in a gruelling tie after Saturday’s victory over Samantha Stosur came down to a 12-10 battle in the third-set after three hours, 13 minutes of tennis. Having been 4-2 down in the crucial third, Petkovic showed her composure by converting her second match point to seal Germany’s win and keep them bidding for a second straight final appearance. “I was a bit tired from yesterday, but I always just played it one point at a time,” said a jaded Petkovic at Stuttgart’s Porsche Arena. “I hope there is Champagne, but beer is also okay. “We’ll mix in with the fans anyway, the atmosphere was incredible.”  Angelique Kerber had earlier put Germany on the brink of the semi-finals with a straight-sets win over Stosur, who has lost both of her singles rubbers in Stuttgart. Also yesterday, former world number one Maria Sharapova sent Russia into the semi-finals as she defeated Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 7-5 to give her country an unassailable 3-0 lead.  The doubles pairing of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Vitaliya Diatchenko later made it 4-0 as they beat Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Alicja Rosolska 6-4, 6-4. Following Sharapova’s victory over Urszula Radwanska in straight sets on Saturday, combined with a three set win for veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova over Urszula’s sister Agnieszka, Russia cruised into the last four. French Open champion Sharapova is playing just her fourth Fed Cup tie since her 2008 debut but in order to make the Olympics next year all players have to make themselves available for the annual women’s team tournament. “It is a very important win for me,” said Sharapova, who has often been criticised for not playing enough Fed Cup matches.