Sweden ties US at Davis Cup semifinals

Thomas Johansson defeated James Blake 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 Friday to pull Sweden to a 1-1 tie with the United States after the opening singles in the Davis Cup semifinals.

Earlier, Andy Roddick beat Joachim Johansson 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Thomas Johansson broke Blake's serve on his second break point to lead 3-1 in the fourth set. That was all he needed, holding his serve the rest of the way.

Blake lost for the first time to Johansson and for the first time in Sweden. The American won their two previous matches.

In Saturday's doubles, U.S. Open champion Simon Aspelin will team with veteran Jonas Bjorkman against top-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan. The reverse singles in the best-of-five series are Sunday.

Captains Mats Wilander for Sweden and Patrick McEnroe for the United States can change their doubles teams up to one hour before the match starts.

Roddick broke for the only time in the match to lead 4-3 in the third set when Johansson blew an overhead at 30-30 and then netted a forehand. The American held at love for the 11th time to close out the match.

Roddick finished with 30 aces on the fast indoor carpet at the Scandinavium arena. Johansson, who has one of the hardest serves in the game, had 23 aces.

"Joachim played very, very aggressive," Roddick said. "I had a little bit of an advantage in the tiebreaks having played more matches."

Johansson, who has been struggling to overcome a shoulder injury, had not played a competitive match since he lasted only two games in the opening round of the Australian Open in January.

Roddick lost only five points on serve in the first two sets, and 12 in total in the match.

"I served pretty good with a lot of aces," Roddick said. "My percentage was high and I stayed out of trouble. The biggest most important stat was that I didn't lose a point (with serve) in either of the tiebreaks. If you do that, you're not going to lose."

Roddick earned a mini-break to lead 5-3 in the second-set tiebreaker when Johansson's forehand return hit the net and bounced wide. Roddick moved to set point with a forehand winner and closed out the set with an ace, his 21st in the match.

Johansson had one break point in the third game of the opening set, when Roddick hit the Swede's hard forehand out. But Roddick hit two straight aces and then a forehand winner to hold his serve to 2-1.

Johansson faced triple-break point in the sixth game, but he served three consecutive aces, a service winner and another ace to hold his serve to 3-3.

Roddick, who served four love games in the first set, got a mini-break to lead 2-0 in the tiebreaker. He never trailed, and won it when Johansson netted a backhand after a superb service return by Roddick.

Roddick improved his record against Johansson to 2-1. Roddick's only loss came in the quarterfinals of the 2004 U.S. Open, when the American was the defending champion.

"Last year, (Johansson) came back in the Stockholm Open and made the semis," Roddick said. "So I was definitely aware that his style does not need a lot of matches to be effective and imposing.

"It was tough to read his serve. I started to do better on his second at least. On the first I could only try to lean either way."

The winner of the best-of-five series will play either Russia or Germany in the final in November. Should the United States and Russia advance, the U.S. would host the final for the first time since 1992.

The Americans lead the series with Sweden 8-3. The most recent meeting was a U.S. victory in the 2004 quarterfinals en route to its 60th final.

The Americans have won the most Davis Cup titles (31), but the last came in 1995. Sweden has won the cup seven times.

Davenport's return a triumph in Bali

Lindsay Davenport won her first singles title after almost a year's absence from the tour, defeating Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 Sunday to capture the Bali Open.

Davenport was playing her first singles tournament since having a baby in June. And the 31-year-old Californian eliminated some strong opponents en route to this title: second-seeded Hantuchova, top-seeded Jelena Jankovic and fifth-seeded Eleni Daniilidou.

"I'm a little bit in shock," said Davenport, who won this event in 2005. "It's just overwhelming and exciting. I swear this is probably the first tournament I've played in four years where I didn't have anything wrong with my lower extremities."

Davenport, ranked No. 1 in 1998, has won three Grand Slams in addition to a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics. Her previous title came in Zurich, Switzerland, nearly two years ago.

She had not competed on the WTA Tour since reaching the Beijing quarterfinals in September 2006, when she lost to Amelie Mauresmo. She gave birth to her first child — a son, Jagger — with husband and former tennis player Jon Leach.

Davenport had the first break for 2-1, but her opponent evened the score the following game. Hantuchova later held a break point for a possible 5-3 lead, but the Slovak made a forehand error. Davenport responded by breaking in the next game.

The second set was settled by a break for 3-1. The final set turned one-sided from 2-1 when Davenport took the next three games at love.

"She threw in a couple of errors ... that really gave me a lot of confidence and momentum," Davenport said. "That relaxed me a little bit more in my service games, and I was able to make some more first serves."

Hantuchova needed treatment for a blister on right heel but refused to blame the injury for her defeat.

"It was just a blister, nothing serious," Hantuchova said. "I was trying to do the right things ... but all credit to the way she was playing. She was serving great."

Davenport teamed with Hantuchova in doubles but withdrew from the doubles semifinal Friday because of a strained left forearm. The Chinese duo of Ji Chunmei and Sun Shengnan won the doubles title, defeating Jill Craybas of the U.S. and Natalie Grandin of South Africa 6-3, 6-2.

Russia beats Italy for 3rd Fed Cup title

Russia secured its third Fed Cup title Sunday after Svetlana Kuznetsova rallied to beat Francesca Schiavone 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 in the first reverse singles and gave the hosts an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Italy.

Elena Vesnina then made it 4-0 for Russia, beating Mara Santangelo 6-2, 6-4 in the second reverse singles. The doubles match was canceled.

Anna Chakvetadze and Kuznetsova won their opening singles Saturday — against Schiavone and Santangelo respectively — to lift Russia to a comfortable 2-0 lead after the first day of play in the best-of-five finals on the hard court at the Luzhniki Arena.

Russia, which won the Fed Cup title in 2004 and '05, remained unbeaten in four matches against Italy, the defending Fed Cup champions.

Maria Sharapova cheered from the bench, and joined in the celebration after the win. She was invited by Russia captain Shamil Tarpischev to practice with the team this week, but she didn't play because of a lingering shoulder injury.

After trading breaks early in the first set Sunday, Schiavone won three consecutive games to go 1-0 up in the match after 40 minutes.

"(Schiavone) made me play some very inconvenient tennis," said Kuznetsova, who appeared flustered in the first set.

Serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, the Italian fell 15-40 down. Schiavone saved one break point before the Russian leveled at 5-5 and forced a tiebreaker.

Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion and runner-up this season, saved two match points in the tiebreaker before serving a powerful winner to prevail 9-7 and stay in the match.

In the decisive third set, Schiavone, ranked 25th, jumped to a 4-1 lead with a break in the fourth game, but lost the advantage in the seventh when she double-faulted on her serve and then returned an easy forehand wide.

Second-ranked Kuznetsova leveled 4-4 and went up 5-4, breaking the Italian in the ninth game. But Schiavone showed no signs of surrender and hammered a smash to level at 5-5.

Kuznetsova made a decisive break in the 11th game, when Schiavone appeared tired and netted two returns and a backhand slice. The Russian ended the match, which lasted 2 hours, 44 minutes, with her first match point.

"I really wanted to bring the victory and this time it worked," said Kuznetsova, who lost her two singles matches when Russia beat France in the final in 2004 to win its first title. Since then Kuznetsova has not played for Russia until this season. She won both her singles to help Russia eliminate Spain 5-0 in the semifinals.

Kuznetsova complained that abdominal muscle problems had undermined her serve this weekend, but she served three aces against Schiavone.

In the early sets, Schiavone showed an improved serve compared with Saturday, when she made just over half her first deliveries. But the Italian faded in the final set.

"She put me under a lot of pressure and I couldn't keep my serve," Schiavone said.

Vesnina had eight aces against Santangelo. She had been scheduled to play in the doubles match, but was substituted for Chakvetadze at short notice.

"I had like five minutes to warm up and change clothes," Vesnina said. "I was like 'I don't understand where I am right now.'"

Italy defeated Belgium to win its first Fed Cup title last season.

Federer wins US Open for 12th Grand Slam

Roger Federer beat Novak Djokovic 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4 for his fourth consecutive U.S. Open championship and 12th Grand Slam title overall.

Federer gave Djokovic all sorts of chances to pull off a major surprise in the U.S. Open final Sunday. Federer knows how to win these things, while Djokovic is still learning, and that might have made the difference.

The 26-year-old Federer became the first man since Bill Tilden in the 1920s to win the American Grand Slam four years running, and he moved within two of Pete Sampras' career record of 14 major titles.

Djokovic was in his first Slam final, yet he led 6-5 in each of the opening two sets. In the first, the 20-year-old Serb held five set points. In the second, he held two.

Federer erased all of those, showing the craft and cool that have allowed him to hold the No. 1 ranking for the past 188 weeks, the longest run by a man or woman.

About the only category Djokovic won on this day was "Most Intriguing Guests," with 2006 Open champion Maria Sharapova and actor Robert De Niro sharing a box with his parents in the stands.

Federer — dressed for an evening on the town, he was all in black, from headwrap and wristband to socks and shoes, from shirt to shorts with tuxedo-like satin stripes down the side — finished things under the lights by breaking Djokovic in the last game with the help of a no-look, over-the-shoulder volley winner.

It's the type of shot that has prompted plenty of people to call Federer the greatest to ever swing a racket — and he's still in his prime.

The No. 3-ranked Djokovic might be younger, but he was the one breathing heavily midway through the first set, standing in place and beckoning a ballkid to bring him a towel so he could rest a bit after a 16-shot point.

Federer was hardly the Federer everyone has to come to expect, and when he double-faulted, then sprayed two forehands long, Djokovic had the first break of the match, going up 6-5. Perhaps thinking they'd be witnesses to an upset, many in the crowd got on their feet, clapping and screaming.

So Djokovic served for the first set and raced out to a 40-love edge.

Three set points. Three chances to take a one-set lead against Federer in the U.S. Open final.

And just like that, they vanished: Federer hit a cross-court forehand winner that caught a line, and Djokovic missed two backhands.

Then came a fourth set point, but Djokovic sent a forehand long.

Then a fifth, but Federer smacked a forehand return that landed right on the baseline and Djokovic's stab backhand went long.

After Djokovic missed yet another backhand to give Federer his first break point of the match, the Serb's nerves really got the better of him: He double-faulted.

That sent the set to a tiebreaker, where there was more of the same. Of Federer's seven points, two were courtesy of double-faults and two were thanks to backhand errors by Djokovic.

It might take some players years to recover, if at all, from that sort of collapse, but Djokovic needed about 15 minutes to grab a 4-1 lead in the second set. Once more, Federer asserted himself, breaking back at love to get within 4-3. And when Federer served while trailing 6-5, Djokovic earned two set points.

Naturally, Federer took care of the first with a 126 mph ace, and Djokovic blew the next with an errant forehand.

Again they went to a tiebreaker, and again Federer was better. When he ended it with a backhand passing winner down the line — placing the ball through the one, tiny opening there was — Federer skipped toward the sideline, screamed and punched the air.

Djokovic had one last opportunity to climb back into the match, getting to love-40 when Federer served at 2-2 in the third set. But Djokovic sailed a backhand return long, let a Federer forehand skim off the baseline to end a 15-stroke exchange, then put a backhand return in the net. That brought it to deuce, and Federer took the next two points to hold.

That was part of Djokovic's 2-for-9 futility on break points. And Federer? Well, all he did was earn five break points — and convert three.